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Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: MagicMartinoWoods on March 03, 2024, 10:35:37 am

Title: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MagicMartinoWoods on March 03, 2024, 10:35:37 am
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: ravenrover on March 03, 2024, 11:45:11 am
Marquis didn't do too bad nor Billy and Joe is doing pretty good.
Perhaps not playing our ex players when we had them in the correct positions might also have something to do with it
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Nudga on March 03, 2024, 12:22:39 pm
Justin Jackson was a grade A bell whiff.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Sprotyrover on March 03, 2024, 12:36:35 pm
Marquis didn't do too bad nor Billy and Joe is doing pretty good.
Perhaps not playing our ex players when we had them in the correct positions might also have something to do with it
Billy Bal’door Plainter ?
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: DRFC_AjA on March 03, 2024, 12:36:56 pm
I think you could argue the other way too. That scouser in the conference banged em in. Forget his name think we got him from vauxhall or was it Chester. Then as someone else already pointed out marquis had a poor record before us. Sharp had banged them in at lower levels but came up a level to us in the championship at scored for fun - which he didn't do for the blades at championship level
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Sprotyrover on March 03, 2024, 12:39:32 pm
I think you could argue the other way too. That scouser in the conference banged em in. Forget his name think we got him from vauxhall or was it Chester. Then as someone else already pointed out marquis had a poor record before us. Sharp had banged them in at lower levels but came up a level to us in the championship at scored for fun - which he didn't do for the blades at championship level
Paul Barnes got 26 in Conference
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Chris Black come back on March 03, 2024, 12:56:09 pm
I think you could argue the other way too. That scouser in the conference banged em in. Forget his name think we got him from vauxhall or was it Chester. Then as someone else already pointed out marquis had a poor record before us. Sharp had banged them in at lower levels but came up a level to us in the championship at scored for fun - which he didn't do for the blades at championship level

Gregg Blundell
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: colincramb on March 03, 2024, 12:57:32 pm
Not sure I agree with original post to be fair. We’ve done well with strikers over the years. Colin cramb, Blundell, barnes, heffs, LFW, billy, marquis and now Ironside.

Yeah there’s been a few that didn’t live up to expectations but not many. Alfie wasn’t given enough of a chance and Cole was only here a short time. Change of managers hasn’t helped them I don’t think
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: NickDRFC on March 03, 2024, 01:06:18 pm
Carl Alford, Justin Jackson and arguably Gary (?) Williams came with high expectations and massively underachieved but that’s over 20 years ago now. We’ve had many, many crap strikers in the intervening period but I don’t think we’ve had that many who’ve had a big discrepancy between expectation and achievement. We’ve also had a lot of decent strikers who have either scored goals or brought a lot to the team, or both.

May was a victim of unfortunate circumstance in that he was competing with Marquis, who has one of the best scoring records we’ve ever had up front as well running his blood to water every game, whilst Cole was only ever on a short term deal with us - not sure he gave a shit about us or us about him.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Sammy Chung was King on March 03, 2024, 01:20:56 pm
The ones who failed just were not as good as first thought when we signed them. Alford wasn’t really the same when he left us. If I remember right he had a couple of seasons where everything he hit went in. Jackson looked promising but again just didn’t fit with us. I don’t remember him lacking effort, fortune had deserted him.

That other kid we bought from non league, can’t remember his name, we paid about fifty grand for him, a striker, he didn’t do anything. The graveyard didn’t claim Billy Sharp, Paul Barnes, Blundell, Hayter. Sometimes it depends on the players around you. Sharp and Hayter played in a good side, as did the other two. When the likes of Jackson and Alford were signed we were in transition.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Batleyred on March 03, 2024, 01:30:16 pm
Alford failed because of drugs mainly cocaine. Screwed him right up.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Draytonian III on March 03, 2024, 02:04:14 pm
Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Chris Black come back on March 03, 2024, 02:07:01 pm
Some real legendary figures here. Surely few came with higher expectations and left with lower output than Mike Newell.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Batleyred on March 03, 2024, 02:21:42 pm
Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer

No he was a landscape gardener after.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Branton Rover on March 03, 2024, 03:30:50 pm
Didn’t Carl Alford score 38 goals in something like 34 games for Stevenage the season before we signed him. Then for us managed 1 goal in around 18 appearances. This is very much like the return Tommy Tynan managed another great goal scorer until he came to us.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Ldr on March 03, 2024, 04:10:50 pm
Didn’t Carl Alford score 38 goals in something like 34 games for Stevenage the season before we signed him. Then for us managed 1 goal in around 18 appearances. This is very much like the return Tommy Tynan managed another great goal scorer until he came to us.

Not a great comparison, Tynan was around 100 years old when he joined us :)
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Campsall rover on March 03, 2024, 04:30:02 pm
Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer
:facepalm: really.
Not much vetting going on there then if he did.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: turnbull for england on March 03, 2024, 06:20:38 pm
Some real legendary figures here. Surely few came with higher expectations and left with lower output than Mike Newell.


It is the law that all such discussions begin and end with Mike Newell.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: NickDRFC on March 03, 2024, 06:26:48 pm
Some real legendary figures here. Surely few came with higher expectations and left with lower output than Mike Newell.


It is the law that all such discussions begin and end with Mike Newell.

Maybe it was just me but I didn’t have high expectations for Newell. I certainly expected a better showing than what he gave us, but he was pretty much only fit for the knackers yard when he signed and hadn’t done much in the past few seasons. Alford and Jackson were in their prime and came off the back of a couple of seasons with plenty of goals.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Chris Black come back on March 03, 2024, 06:37:18 pm
He was 34 when he signed for us. Three seasons prior to that he had been playing and scoring in the Champions League. The season before that he had won the Premier League. We signed him after he had been playing the season before in the Scottish top flight. We were also fans in the Football Conference. Would have been odd where we were and where he had been in the seasons before joining us, to not have high expectations for him.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: selby on March 03, 2024, 06:41:24 pm
  It has moved to Rotherham and Sheffield
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: NickDRFC on March 03, 2024, 06:50:35 pm
He was 34 when he signed for us. Three seasons prior to that he had been playing and scoring in the Champions League. The season before that he had won the Premier League. We signed him after he had been playing the season before in the Scottish top flight. We were also fans in the Football Conference. Would have been odd where we were and where he had been in the seasons before joining us, to not have high expectations for him.

Yes he had a Premier League winners medal but he barely contributed. We signed someone who played a proper role in that title a little while later in Mark Atkins.

Maybe it’s because JR had ramped up the club’s PR machine to 11 by the time Carl Alford and Justin Jackson signed. Or maybe it’s because it felt lucky to be able to actually watch us put a side out in those early conference days, and we’d come off the back of the worst season in history, so expectations were artificially low. Or maybe it was, like I said in my post, just me. But my expectations for Newell just weren’t that high compared to the others mentioned.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Reg of the Rovers on March 03, 2024, 06:52:51 pm
I think you could argue the other way too. That scouser in the conference banged em in. Forget his name think we got him from vauxhall or was it Chester. Then as someone else already pointed out marquis had a poor record before us. Sharp had banged them in at lower levels but came up a level to us in the championship at scored for fun - which he didn't do for the blades at championship level

Gregg Blundell
He's quick, he's scouse, he'll rob your f***ing house.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Goole Rover on March 03, 2024, 07:19:26 pm
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
Alfie May’s departure was down to a failure, Darren Moore.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MagicMartinoWoods on March 03, 2024, 09:19:15 pm
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: pib on March 03, 2024, 10:26:36 pm
Blundell was great. Did a lot more for the team than just score goals.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Draytonian III on March 03, 2024, 10:37:12 pm
I’ve always thought the goals to games thing a bit misleading because if a player is on the pitch for the full duration of the match or comes on as an injury time substitute it’s still classed as the same in the appearance column
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Herbert Anchovy on March 03, 2024, 11:15:59 pm
Possibly the biggest disappointment that I’ve seen from a striker was Terry Austin way back in the early 80’s. He came to us as part of a swap deal with Huddersfield for Daryl Pugh and he had a pretty decent record, but  when he arrived at Belle Vue we absolutely got the short straw with this guy.  It wasn’t just his goals per games average that was poor, it was the fact that he didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he really, really didn’t want to be at Rovers. His effort was absolutely diabolical and when he did score for us, the cheers from the crowd and the celebrations from his team mates were largely ironic. He was utter shit, not through lack of talent but through a lack of effort and desire. One of King Billy’s few bad calls.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MachoMadness on March 04, 2024, 12:17:27 am
Not a striker but Adriano Rigoglioso scored for fun in the Conference before we signed him, and barely started a game for us.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: NickDRFC on March 04, 2024, 08:29:25 am
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.


I actually think 20+ goal-a-season strikers are pretty rare. If you look at how many times someone has scored more than 20 league goals* for these clubs for the past 20 years (since the 03/04 season) then we aren't really an outlier at all.

Scunthorpe - 5 (Paddy Madden 20 in 2015/16, Sam Winnall 23 in 2013/14, Gary Hooper 24 in 2008/09, Billy Sharp 30 in 2006/07 & 23 in 2005/06)
Rotherham - 3 (Kieran Agard (remember him?!) 21 in 2013/14, Adam Le Fondre 23 & 25 in 2010/11, 2009/10)
Rovers - 2 (John Marquis 21 in 2018/19, 25 in 2016/17 - hard to believe some of the pelters he gets on here)
Huddersfield - 2 (Jordan Rhodes 35 (!) in 2011/12, Pawel Abbott 26 in 2004/05)
Bradford - 2 (Andy Cook 28 last season, Dean Windass 27 in 2004/05)
Barnsley - 1 (Sam Winnall 21 in 2015/16). Cole likely to make it 2 this year.
Wednesday - 0 (a couple of 18s is as close as they've come)

Considering that during that time we've had a few seasons of being absolutely terrible, and several others where the goals were frequently shared around under the SOD teams it doesn't look like we compare that badly. Scunthorpe clearly had a rabbits foot before they lost it a few seasons back.



*I've used league goals for 2 reasons - firstly because you mentioned it when talking about Heffs, secondly because it's easily available at transfermarkt.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Pancho Regan on March 04, 2024, 09:33:22 am
Possibly the biggest disappointment that I’ve seen from a striker was Terry Austin way back in the early 80’s. He came to us as part of a swap deal with Huddersfield for Daryl Pugh and he had a pretty decent record, but  when he arrived at Belle Vue we absolutely got the short straw with this guy.  It wasn’t just his goals per games average that was poor, it was the fact that he didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he really, really didn’t want to be at Rovers. His effort was absolutely diabolical and when he did score for us, the cheers from the crowd and the celebrations from his team mates were largely ironic. He was utter shit, not through lack of talent but through a lack of effort and desire. One of King Billy’s few bad calls.

That's a good shout Herbert
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: In the box on March 04, 2024, 09:41:33 am
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
The lack  of continuity of club management , together with insufficient investment in potential year on year has left the club baron of home grown talent . The club is stagnant of ideas on the player recruitment side and is now run season  to season on a reducing budget devoid of foresight that has emptied the club of its senior pro’s on the back room staff . The creation of Club Doncaster has not progressed The Rovers one iota !!
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: donnievic on March 04, 2024, 09:57:44 am
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
harsh one with Alfie he wasn’t really played as an out and out striker with us a lot and he was raw and just starting out league football for the 1st time
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: DonnyBazR0ver on March 04, 2024, 10:03:04 am
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
The lack  of continuity of club management , together with insufficient investment in potential year on year has left the club baron of home grown talent . The club is stagnant of ideas on the player recruitment side and is now run season  to season on a reducing budget devoid of foresight that has emptied the club of its senior pro’s on the back room staff . The creation of Club Doncaster has not progressed The Rovers one iota !!

What you're saying could be applied to our entire history with some of the strikers referred to on this thread were a consequence of the lack on continuity , poor recruitment etc, but that's football in general. At all levels, people come and go with different ideas, and even when we have better times, things don't always work out.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: roversdude on March 04, 2024, 02:17:22 pm
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
The lack  of continuity of club management , together with insufficient investment in potential year on year has left the club baron of home grown talent . The club is stagnant of ideas on the player recruitment side and is now run season  to season on a reducing budget devoid of foresight that has emptied the club of its senior pro’s on the back room staff . The creation of Club Doncaster has not progressed The Rovers one iota !!

Why is the club stagnant of recruitment ideas please
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: scawsby steve on March 04, 2024, 06:02:09 pm
Possibly the biggest disappointment that I’ve seen from a striker was Terry Austin way back in the early 80’s. He came to us as part of a swap deal with Huddersfield for Daryl Pugh and he had a pretty decent record, but  when he arrived at Belle Vue we absolutely got the short straw with this guy.  It wasn’t just his goals per games average that was poor, it was the fact that he didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he really, really didn’t want to be at Rovers. His effort was absolutely diabolical and when he did score for us, the cheers from the crowd and the celebrations from his team mates were largely ironic. He was utter shit, not through lack of talent but through a lack of effort and desire. One of King Billy’s few bad calls.

Dead right, Herbert. The Huddersfield fans used to nickname him "Tracey", after the tennis player, because he was crap for them as well.

The mystery is how he performed at Mansfield, when he scored goals for fun. He was prolific before joining Huddersfield.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MagicMartinoWoods on March 05, 2024, 09:39:18 pm
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.


I actually think 20+ goal a season strikers are pretty rare.

Not sure they are. There's likely to be five above 20 in league one this year, and probably around 10 in league two if you look at the top scorers tables. 3in league two are already there!
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: ncRover on March 05, 2024, 09:45:34 pm
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.


I actually think 20+ goal a season strikers are pretty rare.

Not sure they are. There's likely to be five above 20 in league one this year, and probably around 10 in league two if you look at the top scorers tables. 3in league two are already there!

All that matters is the points on the table at the end of the season. Don’t care who scores them.

Dom Telford was a league 2 20+ goal striker season before last and he’s done bugger all since
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Iberian Red on March 05, 2024, 09:55:33 pm
Possibly the biggest disappointment that I’ve seen from a striker was Terry Austin way back in the early 80’s. He came to us as part of a swap deal with Huddersfield for Daryl Pugh and he had a pretty decent record, but  when he arrived at Belle Vue we absolutely got the short straw with this guy.  It wasn’t just his goals per games average that was poor, it was the fact that he didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he really, really didn’t want to be at Rovers. His effort was absolutely diabolical and when he did score for us, the cheers from the crowd and the celebrations from his team mates were largely ironic. He was utter shit, not through lack of talent but through a lack of effort and desire. One of King Billy’s few bad calls.

Dead right, Herbert. The Huddersfield fans used to nickname him "Tracey", after the tennis player, because he was crap for them as well.

The mystery is how he performed at Mansfield, when he scored goals for fun. He was prolific before joining Huddersfield.

I remember reading the program notes on him when he made his debut.
"One of the most powerful headers of a ball in the game",or in a the similar kind of vein.
Maybe he was,I just never saw him win a header.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Iberian Red on March 05, 2024, 10:08:03 pm
Paul Dobson anyone?
I was out with a couple of players the day he signed for us.
We went to Archives,and there he was sat on his own. The players introduced me to him,lovely lad and I asked him what he'd been up to. He told us he'd had a few beers alone and then proceeded to name about 8 pubs around town,he couldn't remember the names of the others!
Turned out he'd had 12 pints of Guinness alone on a night out.
Maybe that's why he never did the business for us.
By all accounts he was the same at Scarboro when he went there.
Good bloke tho,and not a word slurred! :)
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MagicMartinoWoods on March 05, 2024, 11:10:39 pm
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.


I actually think 20+ goal a season strikers are pretty rare.

Not sure they are. There's likely to be five above 20 in league one this year, and probably around 10 in league two if you look at the top scorers tables. 3in league two are already there!

All that matters is the points on the table at the end of the season. Don’t care who scores them.

Dom Telford was a league 2 20+ goal striker season before last and he’s done bugger all since

Lol, it's an interesting topic for discussion, y'know, on a discussion forum
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: ncRover on March 06, 2024, 07:26:05 am
Have to say I'm a bit surprised at some of the names being put forward as to doing well for us...

Should have been more specific though - not saying they haven't been great players for us, just we haven't had many prolific goalscorers up front (see Afro goal machine as a great example of this)

Gregg Blundell - 28 in 86 games (less than 1 in 3). Had a great first season back in football league of course but overall wasn't prolific.
Paul Heffernan - 35 in 127 games. As much as I loved him, he only scored more than 10 league goals in a season once for us (13)
LFW - 19 in 90 games
Paul Barnes - yes scored 26 in our promotion season in a team that was clearly a top team in the division, but season before he scored 6 for us.

Wasn't thinking back as far as Cramby, but he was great in shocking teams - slightly before then too I would offer Mike Jefferies.
I mentioned the rare few which I would include Marquis, Billy, and possibly Ironside if he continues in this form. We haven't had many 20+ goal-a-season strikers, and they aren't that rare.


I actually think 20+ goal a season strikers are pretty rare.

Not sure they are. There's likely to be five above 20 in league one this year, and probably around 10 in league two if you look at the top scorers tables. 3in league two are already there!

All that matters is the points on the table at the end of the season. Don’t care who scores them.

Dom Telford was a league 2 20+ goal striker season before last and he’s done bugger all since

Lol, it's an interesting topic for discussion, y'know, on a discussion forum

I didn’t mean to sound like I was shutting you down, sorry.

Look at McCann’s 20/21 League 1 winning Hull team for example. No 20+ scorer, but Hull scored the 2nd most in the whole division and got 89 points. The goals were spread out across the front 3:

Wilks (19)
Magennis (18)
Lewis-Potter (13)

Leyton Orient got promoted with a side last year where no one scored more than George Miller.

We do need to create more chances though!
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: BillyStubbsTears on March 06, 2024, 11:27:50 am
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
Alfie May’s departure was down to a failure, Darren Moore.

May was fit throughout 2018-19. McCann picked him 8 times. Go figure.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Bessie Red on March 06, 2024, 11:40:36 am
Paul Dobson anyone?
I was out with a couple of players the day he signed for us.
We went to Archives,and there he was sat on his own. The players introduced me to him,lovely lad and I asked him what he'd been up to. He told us he'd had a few beers alone and then proceeded to name about 8 pubs around town,he couldn't remember the names of the others!
Turned out he'd had 12 pints of Guinness alone on a night out.
Maybe that's why he never did the business for us.
By all accounts he was the same at Scarboro when he went there.
Good bloke tho,and not a word slurred! :)
Although he only played 24 games for us he was one of my favourite players that season. He scored 10 in 24 which is a good return for a striker.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Iberian Red on March 06, 2024, 12:07:16 pm
He was a poacher and lethal around the 6 yard box. I don't recall him getting many outside the box.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: pib on March 06, 2024, 04:26:50 pm
This takes me back to our conference years, I'm sure I posted something similar about Justin Jackson...

Why do we think so many decent strikers absolutely fail with us?

Just look at the League One top scorers - Two out of the three joint top scorers (Devante Cole and Alfie May) are players who didn't make the grade with us, now they're banging them in a level above.

There's a litany of other examples, with admittedly a rare few who have managed to do the business for us, but generally we've missed out on getting the best out of a lot of talented strikers.
Alfie May’s departure was down to a failure, Darren Moore.

May was fit throughout 2018-19. McCann picked him 8 times. Go figure.

Nobody could really argue with that given the front 3 picked itself that season.

Marquis - 44 league starts, 21 goals, 5 assists
Wilks - 42 league starts, 14 goals, 8 assists
Copps - 38 league starts, 4 goals, 14 assists

I'll die on the hill that letting May go when we did wasn't a mistake. It made total sense at the time. I'm not a big fan of Moore but can't really chastise him for that decision.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Herman Hessian on March 07, 2024, 06:08:45 pm
I feel duty-bound to mention Neil Campbell - not entirely sure in what context on a thread ostensibly about strikers who were either properly good, or had a reputation that would have you think they ought to be, but a curious compulsion nonetheless....good old Neil  :P
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: craigdrfc on March 07, 2024, 06:54:43 pm
Maybe not completely in keeping with the real meaning of the thread … but I recall a very young striker who started out with us - Gary Jones - who I believe went on to be fairly prolific at Notts County for a couple of seasons.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: BobG on March 08, 2024, 12:46:11 pm
Was he a young lad played for us in the mid 70's Craig?

BobG
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Draytonian III on March 08, 2024, 12:53:58 pm
Gary Jones played from 1988 -1990 , I think he was from Rosso
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: BobG on March 08, 2024, 02:23:43 pm
Ah. Ok. Thank you.

There was a young lad called Jones who played in the mid 70's. He was in the side that got walloped 6-0 at Watford. I think but only think, he was a midfielder. David Jones maybe? He wasn't around very long. I remember him because I shouted something unpleasant, vulgar and completely unnecesary at him - and he heard me. I am still ashamed of myself today.

BobG
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Draytonian III on March 08, 2024, 04:28:16 pm
Chris Jones would be the player you were thinking of, he was a replacement for Peter Kitchen
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: BobG on March 11, 2024, 02:10:41 pm
Ah. Thank you Draytonian. I've always remembered Chris then - because of my terrible behaviour that day. All I can say today is that I have never (!) shouted abuse at a Rovers player since and I have almost never at an opposition player either - apart from that cheating w**ker, whose name now escapes me, who  handled the ball into our net.

BobG
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: MachoMadness on March 11, 2024, 02:24:26 pm
Bob, that would be the original Kitson himself, Dave Kitson.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: BobG on March 11, 2024, 02:27:52 pm
Ah!! Thank you. Yes. Bloody Kitson. I could still happily abuse him right now
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: drfchound on March 11, 2024, 07:22:16 pm
Carl Alford, Justin Jackson and arguably Gary (?) Williams came with high expectations and massively underachieved but that’s over 20 years ago now. We’ve had many, many crap strikers in the intervening period but I don’t think we’ve had that many who’ve had a big discrepancy between expectation and achievement. We’ve also had a lot of decent strikers who have either scored goals or brought a lot to the team, or both.

May was a victim of unfortunate circumstance in that he was competing with Marquis, who has one of the best scoring records we’ve ever had up front as well running his blood to water every game, whilst Cole was only ever on a short term deal with us - not sure he gave a shit about us or us about him.

With regards to Devante Cole, as poor as he was for us he had one of the best songs.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: scawsby steve on March 11, 2024, 10:30:06 pm
Carl Alford, Justin Jackson and arguably Gary (?) Williams came with high expectations and massively underachieved but that’s over 20 years ago now. We’ve had many, many crap strikers in the intervening period but I don’t think we’ve had that many who’ve had a big discrepancy between expectation and achievement. We’ve also had a lot of decent strikers who have either scored goals or brought a lot to the team, or both.

May was a victim of unfortunate circumstance in that he was competing with Marquis, who has one of the best scoring records we’ve ever had up front as well running his blood to water every game, whilst Cole was only ever on a short term deal with us - not sure he gave a shit about us or us about him.

With regards to Devante Cole, as poor as he was for us he had one of the best songs.

Remind me, mate. I've forgotten it.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: Colin C No.3 on March 11, 2024, 10:33:48 pm
I feel duty-bound to mention Neil Campbell - not entirely sure in what context on a thread ostensibly about strikers who were either properly good, or had a reputation that would have you think they ought to be, but a curious compulsion nonetheless....good old Neil  :P

Neil Campbell was a latter day Joe Ironside but unfortunately without Joe’s goal record at Rovers.

He always busted a gut though & was good footballer who knew how to ‘look after’ the ball.
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: drfchound on March 11, 2024, 11:40:10 pm
Carl Alford, Justin Jackson and arguably Gary (?) Williams came with high expectations and massively underachieved but that’s over 20 years ago now. We’ve had many, many crap strikers in the intervening period but I don’t think we’ve had that many who’ve had a big discrepancy between expectation and achievement. We’ve also had a lot of decent strikers who have either scored goals or brought a lot to the team, or both.

May was a victim of unfortunate circumstance in that he was competing with Marquis, who has one of the best scoring records we’ve ever had up front as well running his blood to water every game, whilst Cole was only ever on a short term deal with us - not sure he gave a shit about us or us about him.

With regards to Devante Cole, as poor as he was for us he had one of the best songs.

Remind me, mate. I've forgotten it.

Hay, haaay baby
Oooh ah
I wanna know oh oh oh oh oh
Devante Cole
Title: Re: Striker's Graveyard
Post by: DonnyBazR0ver on March 12, 2024, 12:54:55 am
Chris Jones would be the player you were thinking of, he was a replacement for Peter Kitchen

That name sent a shiver down my spine. I'd managed to forget him until now. Mickey French wasn't that much better.