Strikers and the lack of them

Goals from play
Matches Goals
Dinny Corcoran 12 7
Micheal Duffy 13 7
Romeo Parkes 10 7
Aaron Drinan 10 7
Aaron Greene 19 6
Junior Uzokwe 12 6
David Parkhouse 22 6
Pat Hoban 21 6
Daniel Mandroiu 14 5
Graham Cummins 12 5


Rovers search for a striker ends with Cummins (i assume) his goals per game is better than Aaron Greene so hope there i suppose and we definitely make more chances than Cork so again reasons for optimism there but it is amazing how poor the strike rates are this year, you would expect someone to have scored a few.
Duffy and Parkes have decent strike rates and you'd think based on stats alone should start more often (has juliet been injured ?)
It does show one thing if any team (Cork and Maguire being the most obvious example) can unearth the mythical 20+ goals a season striker this league is winable due to the lack of strikers in general.

Lack of goal scorers across the League is alarming. Seems to be a dying skill, perhaps the fact many strikers are young mean they haven’t yet quite developed the “killer instinct” of a consistent scorer. Bohs certainly lucky to have Dinny (when fit). Never mind 20 goals a season, 15 for any player would be an excellent return.

20 league goals a season is a tall order alright, especially if it's limited to open play. If you reckon on a striker playing every minute of every league game, that’s a goal every 162 minutes. Not strictly like for like (!) but of the 25 top scorers in the English Premiership, only six had a better goals (all, not just from open play) to minutes ratio than 1:162, and only another three were better than 1:180. The lowest of the 25 was 1:298, which makes some of the LoI players’ returns look very respectable. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers

Excellent stats but in fairness quality of defender would be a lot better.
You can get lucky with a striker who has a prolific season at our level but would not be able to reproduce e at a higher level, that's kind of what I'm talking about.
Maguire, Hoban, Burke, towell would all be examples of reasonably prolific here but struggled to a greater or lessor degree when level was raised, Maguire probably only one on which the jury is still out a bit

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Excellent stats but in fairness quality of defender would be a lot better.

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It balances out - EPL quality defenders v EPL quality strikers and LoI quality defenders v LoI quality strikers.

I agree about the impact of a flash in the pan season, though. There have been relatively few consistently high scoring strikers in the 20 or so years I've been watching LoI. Partly because, like some you mention, they get snapped up by an English club on the back of a phenomenal season, and we rarely get to see can they do it for seven or eight seasons.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Excellent stats but in fairness quality of defender would be a lot better.
You can get lucky with a striker who has a prolific season at our level but would not be able to reproduce e at a higher level, that's kind of what I'm talking about.
Maguire, Hoban, Burke, towell would all be examples of reasonably prolific here but struggled to a greater or lessor degree when level was raised, Maguire probably only one on which the jury is still out a bit

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If any striker in any league has a prolific goal-scoring season, he is likely to attract offers from a higher level and will inevitably meet defenders of a higher standard. Some will struggle and some will prosper with the changes in standard, style, management, environment and all the rest of the issues that present themselves. Most will obviously be less prolific the higher up the scale they go.

Your opening post highlights that there are no strikers who are currently hitting the levels achieved previously by Pat Hoban (2018), Richie Towell (2015) and Gary Twigg (2012) all of whom notched over 0.7 goals per league game (no account of games missed, penalties or frees scored etc).

Using the same simple measurement, the average strike rate of the top three strikers in the league in each season over the period 2010 to 2018 is also modest at 0.52 goals per league game.

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

It balances out - EPL quality defenders v EPL quality strikers and LoI quality defenders v LoI quality strikers.

I agree about the impact of a flash in the pan season, though. There have been relatively few consistently high scoring strikers in the 20 or so years I've been watching LoI. Partly because, like some you mention, they get snapped up by an English club on the back of a phenomenal season, and we rarely get to see can they do it for seven or eight seasons.

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The quality of defending here has probably improved more rapidly than the quality of scoring - better physical conditioning, organization etc is easier than developing the more natural (where it exists) goal poaching knack. Would agree that players prolific are more quickly snapped up, therefore a one season wonder may be bought and we never get to see how well they develop.

Sean Maguire scored 20 goals in 21 appearances the year he left "Mid" season and then scored 10 goals in 24 games for Preston in his first season which is more than respectable.
Only 3 goals last season in 18 appearances and a pretty injury hit year so hopefully he hits the ground running for next season.
Definitely our best hope.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Sean Maguire scored 20 goals in 21 appearances the year he left "Mid" season and then scored 10 goals in 24 games for Preston in his first season which is more than respectable.
Only 3 goals last season in 18 appearances and a pretty injury hit year so hopefully he hits the ground running for next season.
Definitely our best hope.

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If Sean Maguire had stayed in the League for the entire season they'd have had to call it off he was so good.

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

There have been relatively few consistently high scoring strikers in the 20 or so years I've been watching LoI.

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Would Glen Crowe and Jason Byrne be it really?

Even then, both made little impact in brief spells in England. Gary Twigg similarly made no real impression in the Scottish lower leagues.

There was Stephen Geoghegan before that, but maybe just outside your window.

I was just looking at Gary Twiggs record again 124 goals in 160 appearances for Rovers.....
Scored 29 goals in 80 games in Scotland ...not bad, your a hard man Stu :)
he semi retired with injury problems to Portadown (wife from there) and scored 53 goals in 114 appearances. retired fully at 32

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Would Glen Crowe and Jason Byrne be it really?

Even then, both made little impact in brief spells in England. Gary Twigg similarly made no real impression in the Scottish lower leagues.

There was Stephen Geoghegan before that, but maybe just outside your window.

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I thought of Twigg after I posted. Peak Geogheghan was just as I was getting interested in the LoI. Could include Eamon Zayed as well? Wikipedia just gives his total appearances and goals for clubs. So, what's that? Maybe five outstanding, consistent strikers in two decades? And, in fairness, Geogheghan was just before the league began to make inroads into Europe.

Duffy's a winger, Towell an attacking centre mid at the time and even arguably Mandroiu is a number 10 who plays in behind, Burke similar to that too. It just shows the lack of out and out goalscoring strikers/ number 9's around these days. Every time I've seen Hoban this season he's been relatively poor given his standards, whether that's down to his agent playing silly beggars over his contract affecting him I don't know but Georgie Kelly is one young fella coming through the league with a hell of a lot of potential, only thing is he's getting little or no game time with us at all bar 5 mins here and there which baffles me. I think over the next season or two unless a few kids come through the 19s/ 17s clubs will be looking abroad for number 9s.

Lack of keepers coming through too now I think of it, all the mainstays of the league are mid to late 30s and off the top of my head only Talbot and Conor Kearns at UCD as number 1's although Colin McCabe has been getting a run lately at Shels too.

Rory Patterson goals per game has to be up there with them.

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Originally Posted by colonelwest

Duffy's a winger, Towell an attacking centre mid at the time and even arguably Mandroiu is a number 10 who plays in behind, Burke similar to that too. It just shows the lack of out and out goalscoring strikers/ number 9's around these days. Every time I've seen Hoban this season he's been relatively poor given his standards, whether that's down to his agent playing silly beggars over his contract affecting him I don't know but Georgie Kelly is one young fella coming through the league with a hell of a lot of potential, only thing is he's getting little or no game time with us at all bar 5 mins here and there which baffles me. I think over the next season or two unless a few kids come through the 19s/ 17s clubs will be looking abroad for number 9s.

Lack of keepers coming through too now I think of it, all the mainstays of the league are mid to late 30s and off the top of my head only Talbot and Conor Kearns at UCD as number 1's although Colin McCabe has been getting a run lately at Shels too.

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Talbot has been an inspired find for us. There was a lot of concern around Dalymount when Supple was forced to retire prematurely but Talbot has been the find of the season.

I thought Chrisy Fagan was a natural goalscorer, just didnt seem to put the work in.
Twigg, Crowe Jason Byrne , Patterson, Brendan Bradley, Turlough, Tillo, Buckley/Cambell combination, Noel Larkin, probably the best finishers I have seen playing here. We just don`t seem to produce them.I reaaly thought that Sean Maguire would make it. He would be on that list if he hadnt moved to Championship trench warfare

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Originally Posted by mrtndvn

Rory Patterson goals per game has to be up there with them.

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He certainly added bite to the team.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

I was just looking at Gary Twiggs record again 124 goals in 160 appearances for Rovers.....
Scored 29 goals in 80 games in Scotland ...not bad, your a hard man Stu :)
he semi retired with injury problems to Portadown (wife from there) and scored 53 goals in 114 appearances. retired fully at 32

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He absolutely counts from an LoI point of view. I could have made that a bit clearer.

I thought he was longer in Scotland than he was (3 seasons), but 10 goals per season is short of the target we're setting in this thread.

So maybe a bit harsh alright, but there's a valid point buried in there somewhere :)

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Would Glen Crowe and Jason Byrne be it really?

Even then, both made little impact in brief spells in England. Gary Twigg similarly made no real impression in the Scottish lower leagues.

There was Stephen Geoghegan before that, but maybe just outside your window.

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Kevin McHugh? Only four players have more LOI goals than him. Could have been more only for Derry playing him on the wing and he spent a two seasons in the Irish League. Obviously a fair whack of his goals were in the First Division, but one of the most naturally gifted strikers I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Turned down chances to move to England earlier in his career with Harps too.

There were plenty of great goalscorers in the league over the past 20-25 years. Johnny Speak, Mark Farren, John O'Flynn and Eamonn Zayed just to name four off the top of the head.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

He absolutely counts from an LoI point of view. I could have made that a bit clearer.

I thought he was longer in Scotland than he was (3 seasons), but 10 goals per season is short of the target we're setting in this thread.

So maybe a bit harsh alright, but there's a valid point buried in there somewhere :)

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Depends on the criteria 🤔 I think 20 goals a season over multiple seasons a ridiculous ask maybe 15 per season over 3/4 years a realistic target ?

Is it a lack of goal scorers or a golden age of defending in the LOI?

I've seen Harps' defending. It's not a golden age :)

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I've seen Harps' defending. It's not a golden age :)

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Does the same apply to UCD?

This could make for an interesting game tomorrow night..

Only on corners.

I think corners should be banned. We'd be midtable then.

Is t reading too much in to it but anyone else think that Caulfield was a bit meh, didnt really want to be there, looking aorund him in to the distance. Almost found it hard to say anything constructive even for Cork. He has definitely lost some edge. Maybe its a case of confidence getting a battering?

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Is t reading too much in to it but anyone else think that Caulfield was a bit meh, didnt really want to be there, looking aorund him in to the distance. Almost found it hard to say anything constructive even for Cork. He has definitely lost some edge. Maybe its a case of confidence getting a battering?

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probaly just his demeanour, he comes across very much a meat & two veg & mass on Sunday sort . He lost his way and couldn’t rectify it but like Bucko at Pats in that regard, obviously poplar opposites football philosophy wise.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Is t reading too much in to it but anyone else think that Caulfield was a bit meh, didnt really want to be there, looking aorund him in to the distance. Almost found it hard to say anything constructive even for Cork. He has definitely lost some edge. Maybe its a case of confidence getting a battering?

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Nope, just a whingey git with the glass always half empty attitude 😎 so used to moaning that even when winning he had to whine.
Oh, and the patron saint of “agricultural football”.

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Originally Posted by marinobohs

Nope, just a whingey git with the glass always half empty attitude 😎 so used to moaning that even when winning he had to whine.
Oh, and the patron saint of “agricultural football”.

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Alright Pep, he's still won more than Keith Long

If only longford had Davy O'Sullivan in his prime there's no stopping what Fenn could do with this team. 28 goals in his debut LOI season at the age of 25, 28 goals again in 2014 as we won the league, top scorer In every season he was at the club, had a ridiculous record of hattricks against Athlone as well, think he scored three or four of them in a row v Athlone. Top scorer in the division at Shels before retirement too. 3 FD golden boots, top scorer at his club in every season he played and a FD medal to boot. What a striker he was

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Originally Posted by Shearer

Alright Pep, he's still won more than Keith Long

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Ah yes, those were the days. Just before half the Cork fans "disappeared" 😁

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Originally Posted by outspoken

If only longford had Davy O'Sullivan in his prime there's no stopping what Fenn could do with this team. 28 goals in his debut LOI season at the age of 25, 28 goals again in 2014 as we won the league, top scorer In every season he was at the club, had a ridiculous record of hattricks against Athlone as well, think he scored three or four of them in a row v Athlone. Top scorer in the division at Shels before retirement too. 3 FD golden boots, top scorer at his club in every season he played and a FD medal to boot. What a striker he was

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where is he playing now I wonder? maybe we should put in a call in for him! after all Fenn did manage him in Sullys last season with us!