By Albatross
February 16 2004

Where have all the goals gone? After Saturday's game against Wednesday you'd think we were struggling to hit the net. As the saying goes though "You can prove anything with statistics" and it turns out that we're not doing bad at all in front of goal. So why do so many of us think we need a striker? A look in the "goals for" column reveals that Pools are far from badly-off in the scoring stakes. Just six teams have scored more league goals than our 45 in Division 2 this season; and in fact, last year's promotion-winning side had scored just four goals more after the same number of games. We've already scored more goals away from home than we did in the whole of last season's campaign, and only Plymouth have hit the net more times in away games.

So why is the call going out for Cooper to sign another striker?

Part of the problem is that we are looking a bit short of options up front - and that's where the majority of our goals have come from. Eifion and Robinson both have nine, but Robinson looks like he can't buy a goal at the minute - despite not necessarily playing badly; after that, our next leading scorer is the now retired Gabbiadini with 7. Clarke has six, Strachan five from his set pieces - but the midfield overall doesn't seem to be chipping in with the goals in the way it did last season, when Humphreys and Tinkler both got into double figures. Under those circumstances there is a lot more pressure on the forwards to deliver the goals - and with Robinson going 15 appearances and almost four months since last scoring, it leaves Eifion Williams with the unenviable charge of being the man required to score most of our goals. While he's been doing that job pretty effectively over the last couple of months, the absence of Gabbiadini means he's lacking support in goalscoring - especially as Porter has yet to show clinical finishing. With Boyd seemingly out of favour in a big way following his return from Boston overweight, we're then looking at youth teamers like Wilkinson and Appleby - who incidentally seems to be impressing in his spell at Whitby with four goals to his credit.

We have of course seen a reduction in our striking resources as the season has gone on. Gabbiadini's retirement, and the departures of Henderson and then Richardson, have seen us clearing the decks - but also leaving us a little short of options. Porter may yet come good, but even so we have seen three senior strikers end their Pools career - and who'd bet against Boyd joining them in leaving the club?

Rumours have been rife about who Cooper may be bringing in, ranging from the currently impossible (Glentoran's Andy Smith, unavailable now until the Summer transfer window) and the incredibly unlikely (Glenn Naylor), to the speculative (Guy Ipoua and Jamie Cureton) and the possible but apparently out of our price range (Steve Howard - apparently ready to come but demanding too much in wages). The name of Barry Conlon seems to be a recurring one, but I'm not convinced he's what we need at this time - it's a finisher we should be signing, not necessarily a target man.

The problem for Cooper is that there's plenty of competition for players with a proven track record - and as a result wages for the guaranteed quality the fans would like to see are likely to be out of range for Pools. There's very few clubs that wouldn't be in the market for a 20 goal a season striker, and so players such as Howard and Cureton are going to be looking to make the most of the situation - if Pools aren't prepared to pay 3K a week, there are some teams at this level that are. In the meantime, Cooper is faced with a difficult choice - splash the cash on someone that may prove to be a lemon, or wait to try and sign the right player at the expense of a possible playoff place this season.

However, Pools still sit in the top ten, and are still in with as good a shout as any of the playoffs as it is. We got promoted last season without anyone hitting more than Eifion's 15 - and I won't be surprised if he bags a similar number this season. Under the circumstances, isn't Cooper right to wait and see?

One of the points to make is that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Coops may well be lining up fresh talent for the close season - he may be enquiring about new signings to come in now on a daily basis; we just don't know - although I'd hazard a guess that he's more likely to be looking to bring people in than Newell was at this stage last season. He's shown that he knows where the problem lies with his comments about Saturday's game. I suspect that we're going to have to be patient for a while longer yet - in the meantime, let's hope that Cooper is continuing to work on getting Shuker to stay a bit longer than his final month's loan.