Striker's Graveyard

[MagicMartinoWoods]

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.

[ravenrover]

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

[Nudga]

Justin Jackson was a grade A bell whiff.

[Sprotyrover]

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 ?

[DRFC_AjA]

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

[Sprotyrover]

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

[Chris Black come back]

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

[colincramb]

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

[NickDRFC]

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.

[Sammy Chung was King]

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.

[Batleyred]

Alford failed because of drugs mainly cocaine. Screwed him right up.

[Draytonian III]

Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer

[Chris Black come back]

Some real legendary figures here. Surely few came with higher expectations and left with lower output than Mike Newell.

[Batleyred]

Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer

No he was a landscape gardener after.

[Branton Rover]

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.

[Ldr]

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

[Campsall rover]

Didn’t Carl Alford join the police force after finishing as a footballer

really.
Not much vetting going on there then if he did.

[turnbull for england]

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.

[NickDRFC]

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.

[Chris Black come back]

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.

[selby]

  It has moved to Rotherham and Sheffield

[NickDRFC]

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.

[Reg of the Rovers]

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.

[Goole Rover]

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.

[MagicMartinoWoods]

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.

[pib]

Blundell was great. Did a lot more for the team than just score goals.

[Draytonian III]

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

[Herbert Anchovy]

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.

[MachoMadness]

Not a striker but Adriano Rigoglioso scored for fun in the Conference before we signed him, and barely started a game for us.

[NickDRFC]

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.