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Look a fairly unremarkable career until signing on loan for Notts Co in the conference, initially on loan, where he got into regular goalscoring. Stockport managed to pick him up on a free whilst also still in the conference, where of course, he's grown with them and continued to find the net at each level. There must be other prospects in the Conference we ought to be looking at?
Plus the lad from Scunny recently, who barely played a game then got injured, never to be seen again. Alfie of course, gradually built up his reputation after taking the leap from non league. Greg Blundell was one of my favourites and definitely one the gave more than expected plus having Barnes, then Leo around was a great time for us. It just shows they're all gambles. Some you win, some you don't as some players struggle to make the adjustment. I just wonder how some of the natives would react if we took a gamble on a National League striker right now?
JR did spend a lot of cash trying to find that goalscorer in the conference. Alford, Jackson, Sale, Newell were all established and expensive for that level. Eventually struck lucky with Paul Barnes and very late in the promotion season, Gregg Blundell.
Tojal at Plymouth, Wooten at Stockport.Grant ‘knows’ what their qualities are or what their nouse & ‘brute force’ bring to this division according to his post match interviews.It does beg the question.
Quite hard for a centre forward to score lots of goals in the set up that McCann plays. You are on your own and expected to be the focal point for attacks and help bring in the wider players. Requires a lot of energy and graft.Does show how effective Marquis was in 2018/19 with 26 goals in 54 appearances, playing in that set up.
John Marquis of a few years was ideal for this system, he closed players down, scored his fair share of goals, but he was shitte at penalties. Anyone remember the one away at Crawley , it was terrible, I could have saved it whilst eating a sandwich
Quote from: Chris Black come back on December 31, 2025, 08:53:22 amQuite hard for a centre forward to score lots of goals in the set up that McCann plays. You are on your own and expected to be the focal point for attacks and help bring in the wider players. Requires a lot of energy and graft.Does show how effective Marquis was in 2018/19 with 26 goals in 54 appearances, playing in that set up.Don’t forget Ironside 23/24 - 24 goals in 55 appearances.I think it helps the centre forward get more chances through the team functioning better if they are good at the things you mentioned.Recruiting centre forwards based solely off their previous goal records elsewhere isn’t the way to go about it.Someone like Wootton would be great for us. A 39 year old Sharp who struggles physically and a player in Olusanya who couldn’t trap a bag of cement less so.
When Grant says “Wooton has made a career of it (bullying centre halves)”, he’s clearly been watching Wooton some time to be able to make that statement.It’s not unlike the statement he made after Lorent Tolaj scored a hat trick against us for Plymouth…’We told the boys that he would look to spin & his pace takes him into dangerous places for us….”.As I’ve said on another thread, whilst it’s admirable that Grant knows so much about our opposition’s players it does beg the question, why weren’t we looking to get them playing in hoops?I know Tojal’s release clause at Port Vale was £1.2 million (£300k less than Lincoln turned down for Rob Street) but if we’re crying out for a ‘proven goalscorer’ (Tojal scored 19 goals for Aldershot in 2023/24, 15 for Vake in 2024/25) is that sort of money above us because if it is then we’re looking to find a gem in a lump of rock then Hanlan, Ajayi, Olusanya yes Billy are certainly not that gem (once upon a time Billy you were, absolutely).
Marquis was too greedy, demanded the team work only for him, but he did score goals. I wouldn't want an identical character, but it would be good to get that aggression in the box and give wingers somebody to target.