NCM Report Cards: #5 Mike Whitlow

Name: Mike Whitlow
Age: 37
Position: Centre Back
No. of appearences 04/05: 28 (2)

Season Highlight: Standing tall against Hasselbaink and co. as Notts were defeated 2-1 by Premiership Middlesborough.

Season Lowlight: A number of disappointing early displays culminating in being put on the transfer list by former boss Gary Mills.

At the ripe old age of 37, veteran defender Mike Whitlow would be forgiven for thinking that he'd seen pretty much everything in the game, but in a season where he saw himself bounce back after being written-off by fans' and manager alike, he may well have put that school of thought to bed.

The Yorkshire-born player has played at the very highest level - with Leeds Utd, Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers - and signed for the Magpies after playing a key role in Sheffield United's attempted promotion push from the Championship.

As the first of Gary Mills' eight summer signings, he certainly arrived at Meadow Lane with excellent pedigree. It was this sort of player who would help us bounce straight back up, we thought.

Mills himself certainly had great faith in his former team-mate, handing him a two-year deal at the ripe old age of 36 and immediately installing him as captain of his new-look side.

However, Whitlow hardly made the best of starts to his Notts career. In fact the phrases 'past it', 'journeyman' and 'get your zimmer frame out Whitlow you old twat' could all be heard from home sections at Meadow Lane.

The greatest of openings, it wasn't.

The vastly-experienced defender was stuggling with injury, though, even when he was playing and was badly exposed by the Magpies' dreadful start in League Two.

On his early showings, he was indifferent, but these displays were only to worsen in the month of October.

Ran ragged by Leyton Orient's dangerious strike pairing of Alexander (magnet) and Steele, it seemed that the former Premiership star's legs had all but gone, just two months into a two year deal.

His - and that of his team-mates - performances were to only get worse two weeks later in the local derby against Mansfield at Field Mill, as Whitlow was embarrasingly beaten time and time again by the Stags' pacey front pairing of Derek Asamoah and Colin Larkin.

It looked like the final straw and the under-fire Mills responded to the defeat by putting his former friend, along with David Pipe and Matt Gill, on the transfer list.

At the time of writing though, all three players are still at the club and Mills isn't. Two weeks later, the 42-year-old was stripped of his managerial responsibilities after another humiliating away defeat, this time 5-1 against Rushden & Diamonds.

Whitlow had again been given a torrid time in the defeat to the Diamonds' but his season had reached its turning point.

The appointment of team-mate Ian Richardson as temporary boss - ironically, Whitlow himself had been touted in some circles as a possible stand-in replacement for Mills - lifted weight from his shoulders, with the 37-year-old barely on speaking terms with his former Leicester team-mate by the time he made his exit.

Richardson immediately took Whitlow, Pipe and Gill off the transfer list and all three players went on to show a great deal of improvement from their early season showings.

Whitlow, in particular, was a man re-born. While many, after such a long and distinguished top-flight career, may have been tempted to throw in the towel when being given the run-around by fourth division strikers, Whitlow stuck to his task - determined to prove people wrong who said he could no longer play at this level.

In a matter of weeks, the left-sided defender had gone from ageing codger to arguably the most important player in the entire Notts team. He was, at last, performing the job he'd been brought to do. Marshall, marshall, marshall. He was the Daddy.

After a number of impressive performances, Whitlow was to continue his re-birth with his season's finest hour, a truly immense display against Premiership Middlesborough.

The veteran proved that, beyond all doubt, he was still good enough in front of a bumper attendance in the FA Cup Third Round clash. His display was also prominent for the way he helped teenager Kelvin Wilson grow in stature alongside him, in his first game at centre back since the Rushden debacle.

It was not to be a one-off. Wilson would later admit that Whitlow was a huge factor in his rise to prominence this season, with it being no coincidence that the 19-year-old's best performances came when he played alongside the veteran.

Notts' performances were a great improvement on those earlier in the season, and it hadn't gone un-noticed that when the Magpies' slumped to an embarrasing 5-0 home defeat at the hands of Maccesfield, Whitlow was an absentee from the defence ruthlessly bullied by Jon Parkin.

Whitlow's revitalised Magpies' career was to come to a swift halt though, with the knee injury that had troubled him throughout the season coming back to haunt him when he damaged it in the 1-1 draw, ironically against Rushden.

The former Leeds man was to return a month later, in the 4-0 drubbing at Boston, in a gesture that said a lot for Whitlow as a man.

His performance that night was not the Whitlow post-October, but of the Whitlow we saw early on in his Magpies' career.

However, as the veteran readilly admits, he shouldn't have played at York Street that night. But, with Notts in the midst of a defensive injury crisis, Whitlow was happy to put himself on the line for the good of the team.

Hardly the act of the mercinery journeyman some supporters had accused him of being after the first few months of the campaign.

As it happens, featuring in the fixture did badly halt his recovery, with the decision eventually being made for an operation, that was undertaken in May. As a result, the former Bolton man will miss the early stages of pre-season training.

Now, both he and the club faces a decision. His two-year deal came with an option at the end of the first year. The option was designed so player and club could decide whether there was enough left in the legs to play just one more year.

Barring the injuries, it's hard to make a case suggesting that Whitlow does not have another season left in him. And all the early suggestions are that he will be a Notts County player next season.

Based on his performances post Mills, that can only be a good thing.

Season Rating (out of 10): 6.5

For the continuation of the player's report cards, where NCM will take a look at the now-departed midfielder Stefan Oakes, be sure to check back to NCM within the next few days.