This thread sums up the attitude of a section of Argyle fans for me. The old saying goes 'once a green, always a green', but for me the adverse is also true for many - 'once a poor performer, always a poor performer.' Thankfully the OP is clearly in a minority, but as others have eluded to, what else could Banton have contributed once he came on?
People need to accept that Banton is an inconsistent player - occasionally poor, but occasionally capable of feats no other player in this side is capable of. Too many times over the past few seasons we've seen players like this, eg. Noone, Bolasie, and even to a certain extent Hourihane, sold on for a relative pittance only for them to find form and bang in the goals elsewhere.
To exemplify things - today one of the Cheltenham defenders took a poor touch - Banton bust a gut to put the guy under pressure and put a tackle in. Had Smalley shown the same sharpness to the second ball he could have set up another chance for Argyle. As it happened, he didn't, and Cheltenham cleared the ball away. Following this, someone behind me felt it appropriate to comment that Banton was 'F***ing useless', to which me and many others didn't react well. Embarrassing frankly.
Jason is clearly frustrated at the positive moves the side have made since his exclusion - but surely any one of us would be as well. We would all want to be part of a winning side and be demonstrating a clear contribution to that side.
Admittedly Jason hasn't been in good form this season, but I personally find comments on his effort and work-rate well wide of the mark. As others have said, this is the side of his game that I've seen Jason come on heaps and bounds since his initial spell. When he had his purple patch at the end of last season, I thought Banton in particular had shown massive improvements in his willingness to track back and get tackles in. With his build he's never going to be particularly solid in the tackle but he's clearly putting serious effort in to improve this side of his game.
For me, people need to get off the guy's back and drop this idea that he has this attitude of wanting to do it all himself and be the star of the team. He's much more willing now to put the dirty work in and do his part for the collective cause.
In comparison Smalley, who other than the Stevenage match in which I thought he was tremendous in the air and instrumental in us gaining a point from the game, has been poor at best and has demonstrated a real lack of effort in some of the games he's played in, Shrewsbury in particular - although admittedly I didn't attend the Swindon match in which I've heard he was very good. And yet certain posters on here still seem to believe that he's worthy of a starting place in the team. Baffling really.
I say keep up the work Jason and the goals will come soon enough. He's a good player for this league - inconsistent, but brilliant on his day - and I believe very soon we will all see this to be the case.
