RFC Strikers - A Potted History

[handbags_harris]

Shamelessly stealing the thread title from the Football League Show, this thread is designed to provide a pretty major point about RFC strikers over the past 30 years. If anybody can go further back, please do.

Something that Reading FC has been blessed with since 1980 is their almost perennial ownership of at least one striker who has the capability to score 15-20 goals a season, and this has been a massive influence on our league positions over that time. Only once can I think of a time when a striker has scored more than 20 goals in conjunction with a bottom 3/4 finish. The last 10 years has seen only one bottom half finish in whatever league we played in, and we got relegated from the Premiership that season. So let's look at those strikers:

Kerry Dixon - sold, replaced by Trevor Senior who left, replaced immediately by Craig Maskell who was then sold a year later and in came Jimmy Quinn. The latter three were all at some point partnered by Stuart Lovell, the latter part of who's stay at Reading coincided with Trevor Morley's emergence as a major focal point of Reading's attack. When Morley left in 1998, it left us with Martin Williams and Jim McIntyre up front, the first time in nearly two decades that Reading's attack consisted of distinctly average strikers, a time that lasted one season. 1999 saw the arrival of Nicky Forster, quickly followed up by Martin Butler and then Jamie Cureton. Shortly before Butler was sold we lost Jamie Cureton, and Shaun Goater arrived somewhere in the middle of those two leaving (Goater is a controversial one as he didn't actually score 15 goals in a season with us, but he had the capability). A few months later Dave Kitson was signed, and he very much ruled the roost of our attack for the whole of the 04/05 season, before Kevin Doyle and Leroy Lita were signed. Kitson left, Doyle and Lita left a year later, and we are left once again with strikers who are distinctly in the average/mediocre bracket.

The striking position is the major focal point of any team. Teams with good strikers 99 times out of 100 do well. Teams with slim pickings for goals don't. We are in the latter bracket, a point proven by our consistent ability to create three or four good chances a game, and not take them. Players come and go, but each time we have had a good striker leave, we have, by hook or by crook, replaced them with another good striker within a year. That trend does not look like continuing in the next few months, and therefore will be the first time in 30 years that Reading FC has failed to do so. A major problem? You bet it is.

[Ian Royal]

That's a fair point.

We are reaping the harvest of not loaning out Long in either Premier League season.

We have an excellent striker in Church, but not a goalscorer. Rasiak lends that perfect touch of experience, but isn't the goalscorer we need.

Thorvaldsson is our only hope there.

Or Sig hitting a Caskey quantity of goals.

I can think of one season where our top scorer had about 11 but we didn't go down, iirc 95/96? Nogs and Lovell both finishing on 11? Next season Morley hit the 20 odd, then Asaba 11 and relegation?

[Franchise FC]

Shirley this should be - RFC Strikers - A Distant Memory

[Fezza]

Shirley this should be - RFC Strikers - A Distant Memory

Shirley this should be - RFC Stinkers - A worrying trend

[madmickb]

Get rid of a couple of players on the books and get Kevin Philips in on loan till the end of the season

[handbags_harris]

If only life was that simple. How do you propose to "get rid" of said players, and how do you propose to offer money the club apparently doesn't have to bring in Phillips on his obviously high wages?

[juanpablo]

Forster in

[bobbybottler]

Handbags - before Dixon it was Ollie Kearns. I still scare my kids with tales of his lack of skill.

Senior was partnered for a couple of seasons by Dean Horrix who was also capable of scoring a few, and Maskell wasn't sold, he was swapped for Tom Jones. It'd be worth mentioning Steve Moran and David Leworthy, IIRC we started the 90/91 season with those two plus Senior meaning we had the most expensive forward line in division 3. Obviously, we were promo...oh, hang on.

Unforgiveably though, you've missed off Brayson.

[Mr Angry]

And Keith Scott.

And Colin Gordon.

[Dirk Gently]

Plus we only got Cureton as a last-minute stop-gap when Forster was injured early in the season - and his partnership with Butts turned out to be one of the most prolific there was.

And just to expand this slightly, it's all about striking partnerships. Apart from Forster (who was a superb lone-striker, less effective with a partner) there's the old saying that they "hunt in pairs" - Senior would not have been as effective without Horrix alongside him, and Butler & Cureton I've already mentioned. Then you have Quinn & Lovell/Morley and many others. A lot of the time this has been the big man and a younger, fitter "workhorse" who does the running for him.

I can see Long being successful as a second striker, but he's not a main striker, and we just have no-one to lead the line, and to be the main striker.

[specialjon]

Would we be in this trouble if Noel Hunt was fit? Would his goals put us further up the table? Would his snow men been as big if he where fit?

[Thaumagurist*]

Senior would not have been as effective without Horrix alongside him,

He also played with Kevin Bremner...

[Dirk Gently]

Senior would not have been as effective without Horrix alongside him,

He also played with Kevin Bremner...

Agreed, but the principle is the same - main striker who gets most of the goals but doesn't do much work, plus support striker who does a lot more work and gets a lot fewer goals.

At the moment we've got two support strikers who both do a lot of work but get the square root of bugger-all goals.

[Thaumagurist*]

Senior would not have been as effective without Horrix alongside him,

He also played with Kevin Bremner...

Agreed, but the principle is the same - main striker who gets most of the goals but doesn't do much work, plus support striker who does a lot more work and gets a lot fewer goals.

At the moment we've got two support strikers who both do a lot of work but get the square root of bugger-all goals.

Absolutely, I agree with you.

However, the Forster-Cureton and Nogan-Lovell partnerships worked quite well when they were getting the service they relied on...

[Tilehurst Mike]

Lets not forget these mere mortals who I also witnessed playing: Robin Friday, Billy Whitehurst, Steve Moran, Les Chapple, Percy Freeman, Gary Heale. What some characters and memorable goals they scored!!

Anyone with a football brain at the start of the season seeing our strike force consisted of an injury prone Noel Hunt, Simon Church ( who only scored the odd goal on loan at Div 1/2 level) and Shane Long could see that we would struggle to score goals and the signing of Rasiak who couldn't even get in to a strugling saints team did not inspire confidence. To try and put thsi right at such a crucial stage of the season is beyond belief and the signing of an out of form/non match fit Icelandic on loan is not the answer either.

[strap]

Handbags - before Dixon it was Ollie Kearns. I still scare my kids with tales of his lack of skill.

Senior was partnered for a couple of seasons by Dean Horrix who was also capable of scoring a few, and Maskell wasn't sold, he was swapped for Tom Jones. It'd be worth mentioning Steve Moran and David Leworthy, IIRC we started the 90/91 season with those two plus Senior meaning we had the most expensive forward line in division 3. Obviously, we were promo...oh, hang on.

Unforgiveably though, you've missed off Brayson.

You mean the same Ollie Kearns who scored 40 leauge goals for us in only 75 league starts?

You would sell your soul to get a striker of that capability in today's team!

[bobbybottler]

Handbags - before Dixon it was Ollie Kearns. I still scare my kids with tales of his lack of skill.

Senior was partnered for a couple of seasons by Dean Horrix who was also capable of scoring a few, and Maskell wasn't sold, he was swapped for Tom Jones. It'd be worth mentioning Steve Moran and David Leworthy, IIRC we started the 90/91 season with those two plus Senior meaning we had the most expensive forward line in division 3. Obviously, we were promo...oh, hang on.

Unforgiveably though, you've missed off Brayson.

You mean the same Ollie Kearns who scored 40 leauge goals for us in only 75 league starts?

You would sell your soul to get a striker of that capability in today's team!

yeah but he was shite in fairness

[RobRoyal]

We are reaping the harvest of not loaning out Long in either Premier League season.

It's a nice thought, but I can't get behind the idea that he would be a different striker with a year or so's extra Championship experience. I think we've seen the peak of his abilities. He's alright on his day - and to be fair he had a good run of goals towards the back end of last year - but I'm not convinced he'll ever be a good Championship striker.

I would rather we'd sold him and took a punt with the proceeds.

[Duke the Dog]

Ah, the Billy Whitehurst - Steve Moran front line - classic! Other than the Wembley trip, that was an awful season! (It's also when I started going to games on a regular basis - nope, I don't know why either)

Don't forget the legend that was Dean Horrix (rip).

[Tilehurst End]

If we were still playing at division 3/4 level the strikers we have now would be scoring goals. For Christ's sake Kevin Poole made his debut in goal for Burton on Saturday at 46.