Question Successful strikers for us with poor or no decent experience

[Napster]

It's a well-worn trope, really, the striker who comes here and the fans are upset because they're on their way down, or they have no decent goalscoring experience. But for every Graeme Jones (44 goals in 96 league games at Wigan, 2 in 21 here), there's a Barry Corr, or Simon Cox. So, who's your favourite to beat expectations?

Stan Collymore (1 league goal in 20 league apps at Palace)
Richard Cadette (4 in 21 at Orient)
Tes Bramble (3 in 18 at Cambridge City)
Lee Barnard (4 league goals at various loan clubs)

I know all of these were early gambles. But we were Barry Corr's sixth club, and he hadn't set the world alight anywhere before.

Any more?

 

[Leeboy]

Don't know their stats off the top of my head but what about:

Theo Robinson
Hal Robson-Kanu

 

[TJC]

Stan is the king here. My god did he set the world on fire. I'd only been a supporter a couple of years and witness Angel, Benjamin and Ansah, shortly followed by Stan and Ricky Otto. I thought strikers/wingers like that came along every few years! Then had to wait for Eastwood. Corr was a great forward for us, but some way behind Eastwood who was some way behind Collymore.
The likes of Collymore will never been seen again. That mould was broken. Never underestimate what a beast Stan was.

 

[LennySUFC]

Leon Constantine scored 21 league goals in 43 games (25 in 53 incl. cups) for us however before that had only scored 3 goals in 35 games across four different clubs.

 

[Napster]

Stan is the king here. My god did he set the world on fire. I'd only been a supporter a couple of years and witness Angel and Benjamin, shortly followed by Stan and Ricky. I thought strikers like that came along every few years! Then had to wait for Eastwood. Corr was a great forward for us, but some way behind Eastwood who was some way behind Collymore.
The likes of Collymore will never been seen again. That mould was broken. Never underestimate what a beast Stan was.

The Echo on the Friday night before his debut said we'd signed someone, but his raw ability was something to behold.

 

[Napster]

Don't know their stats off the top of my head but what about:

Theo Robinson
Hal Robson-Kanu

Theo scored 16 goals the season before joining us on loan at Hereford (L2)

HRK - no goals before joining us.

 

[TJC]

The Echo on the Friday night before his debut said we'd signed someone, but his raw ability was something to behold.

Right up to the last minute, it was rumoured to be Johnny Ekström - Swedish International. Oh the excitement I recall turning to dismay when it was announced we had signed an unknown called Stan.
As I understand it, Colin Murphy wasn't interested in Stan and wanted someone else (Johnny Ekström?) but Vic Jobson intervened and insisted it was Stan (perhaps as he spotted the talent or saw the differences in wage demands!). For that, I will be forever grateful to Vic.

 

[TJC]

Only on loan, but Britt Assombalonga was quite a find too.

 

[Richard Hearn]

Richard Cadette (4 in 21 at Orient)

And then four goals in his home debut against Orient!

Stan has somewhat eclipsed him in people's memories (as well as those too young to have seen Cadette play) but Richard most certainly the King in his day.

 

[Napster]

Jimmy Shankley as well - not exactly a prolific striker when we signed him at the grand age of 27 https://www.vintagefootballers.com/product/shankly-jimmy-image-1-southend-1930/

Others of note:

Derrick Parker - 2 goals in 6 games
Stuart Parker - 2 goals in 16 games
Chris Guthrie - 0 goals before Southend
John McKinven - 0 goals in 6 games at Raith Rovers before here
Peter Corthine, Jim Fryatt, Mickey Beesley, all also came without much of a pedigree

There's plenty more as well no doubt.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Right up to the last minute, it was rumoured to be Johnny Ekström - Swedish International. Oh the excitement I recall turning to dismay when it was announced we had signed an unknown called Stan.
As I understand it, Colin Murphy wasn't interested in Stan and wanted someone else (Johnny Ekström?) but Vic Jobson intervened and insisted it was Stan (perhaps as he spotted the talent or saw the differences in wage demands!). For that, I will be forever grateful to Vic.

Absolutely, the chase for Ekstrom was probably influenced more by his assistant Bob Houghton, who had extensive knowledge of Swedish football, having taken Malmo to the European Cup final, losing to Forest.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Right up to the last minute, it was rumoured to be Johnny Ekström - Swedish International. Oh the excitement I recall turning to dismay when it was announced we had signed an unknown called Stan.
As I understand it, Colin Murphy wasn't interested in Stan and wanted someone else (Johnny Ekström?) but Vic Jobson intervened and insisted it was Stan (perhaps as he spotted the talent or saw the differences in wage demands!). For that, I will be forever grateful to Vic.

The interest in Ekstrom (Sweden’s record goalscorer?) was very real and definitely not a publicity stunt.

We know this as Blues News (RIP), the Blues’ own version of Pravda had a front page article about our attempts to sign him which included the actual phrase “this is not a publicity stunt”.

 

[Stuart W]

William James Blaikley Best. Need I say more?
Well I will. After 7 years at Northampton where he scored a total of 16 goals at a rate of one every three games, we ended up with someone who became everyone’s definition of a goal machine.
Any fan fortunate enough to have been watching the Blues from 1967/68 will know he came to us with no track record, and transformed into the finest goal scorer we have had in the last 57 years.

 

[manor15]

Maybe not quite this level, but I remember a number of people on here being pessimistic about Barry Corr. 3 goals and 3 red cards in 34 for Exeter the season before he joined us, his best return being 5 in 17 for Swindon 3 years before.

 

[Ted]

Be interested in the flip side of this too.

How often have we signed someone who’d been banging in goals elsewhere, came with a big reputation and completely flopped.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Be interested in the flip side of this too.

How often have we signed someone who’d been banging in goals elsewhere, came with a big reputation and completely flopped.

I'll start the ball rolling on that with Alan Foggon, who stopped scoring after leaving Middlesbro!

Not such a big reputation, but still a failure in my eyes, Peter Abbott.

 

[Leeboy]

Be interested in the flip side of this too.

How often have we signed someone who’d been banging in goals elsewhere, came with a big reputation and completely flopped.

Graeme Jones, end of.

Mark Salter only scored 1 goal (but it was against Orient) after banging in shed loads for Frome Town in whatever non league they were in at the time. Maybe Conference South?

 

[damien]

Didn’t Billy Paynter score well before joining us.

 

[Sunnyshrimper]

Dougie Freedman had a far better scoring ratio before joining us, really lost that element of his game in his twilight years with us before retiring.

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

Surprised no one's mentioned Barry Corr. When we signed him I was underwhelmed looking at his stats and thought he'd be injured constantly.

Happy to be proved wrong though.