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Town fans are used to legions of unknown trialists in pre-season coming and going without making much of a splash at Town, and many would have expected former Reading defender Odimayo to go the same way, with his only prior first team experience being a short spell with Lee Power’s Waterford. Even when he did enough to win a contract, it was generally expected that he would be cover and well down the pecking order with Town already having plenty of defensive options including Zeki Fryers, Dion Conroy, Matheiu Baudry, Tom Broadbent and Taylor Curran. Nine months later, Odimayo had played 34 games and was named the Swindon Advertiser Player of the Year. In part, Odimayo’s chances had come because the men in front of him couldn’t stay in form, in fitness and in most cases both, but he’d done himself great credit across the season between spells at right back and centre back, displaying a level of competence which far outshone much more experienced professionals. Having been handed a debut alongside Fryers in the League Cup defeat to Charlton, he impressed enough to retain his place for the opening league win over Rochdale, but was then replaced by club captain Baudry. His next start came a month later on the right hand side of a three with Baudry and new signing Jonathan Grounds, the start of a seriously unstable season for Odimayo in which he played in five different defensive pairings, three different trios as well as spells at right back and right wing back. He made mistakes, as did all Town players, but was by some distance the most impressive of Town’s defenders particularly given his inexperience. PLAYING RECORD:
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date of birth age
usual positions central defence youth career senior career |
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