Callum Foster: Haydn Hollis, he's one of our own!

Haydn Hollis is a name that divides opinion amongst Notts fans.

The centre-back is a 6ft3, athletically built product of our youth system, who oozes professionalism and is an all-round nice guy.

Ever since breaking into the first team Hollis has shown signs of becoming a great strong solid lower-league centre back but the inconsistency and the bad spells he goes through have split the fan base's opinion of him.

He played a great part in the great escape of 2013/14 and for the first half of the 2014/15 - Hollis and a combination of Haydn Mullins / Louis Laing was excellent.

Hollis was producing the best form of his Notts career but the return of Mullins, plus Laing leaving, led to a poor ending of the season and resulted in relegation.

Then we had the "we'll score one more goal than them" approach of Ricardo Moniz which destroyed the defence and in turn made Hollis a scapegoat for the poor results which followed until the end of the season.

Under John Sheridan, Hollis lost just about every bit of confidence he had and his performances on the pitch suffered because of it.

Ever since Kevin Nolan arrived Hollis has been reborn, rebuilt, he’s sticking to what he knows - head it, boot it away, win the tackles, simple passes and been an attacking threat from set pieces.

The harshest Hollis critics can’t say that he hasn’t deserved his place in the starting line up. Nolan has worked wonders with the squad, players like Hollis just needed a bit of confidence, praise and guidance.

You can’t fault Hollis’ commitment and attitude, even slotting in at left-back for one game. The partnership between Hollis and Duffy it may not be the strongest but together they know their roles and with each game that passes by the signs of a solid foundation for next season are starting to appear.

I’m not saying Hollis is going to be the best defender in League Two, he’s still prone to the odd mistake here and there such as against Crewe on Friday but if he wasn’t he would be further up the footballing pyramid - but he is starting to show signs of maturity for a 24 year old defender who has played 140 games, 128 of them for Notts chipping in with 7 goals for us.

I hope Nolan and Hardy do offer Hollis, Richard Duffy and Thierry Audel new deals. Yes, they have their flaws and yes, we will need another proven centre-back to offer competition and take over should any of the three mentioned let their standards slip.

Should Hollis continue improving and learning from the mistakes he makes along the way, there’s no reason why he won’t earn a new deal and extend his five-year spell in and around the first team.

Love him or loathe him, he is one of our own, let’s start treating him like that. Now is the time for Haydn to reach the potential he has have, prove the doubters wrong and show us he can be consistent and deserves to be in this team for next season.

Haydn Hollis, he’s one of our own...

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