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The Boys Who Bulged the Net


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On 3 October Little General posted a list of players who scored 100 goals or more for Rangers. Here is the top ten from that list:

 

Goals Appearances

Jimmy Smith 382 411

Ally McCoist 355 581

Bob McPhail 287 465

Willie Thornton 248 410

Robert Hamilton 247 293

Jimmy Fleming 240 295

Willie Reid 226 262

Derek Johnstone 210 546

Ralph Brand 206 317

Alex Venters 205 407

 

Most of that is as expected, with good old Super in runner-up position but no Jim Forrest and no Kris Boyd. But have a look at the average/strike-rate and see what happens.

 

Goals Appearances Average Strike Rate

Jimmy Smith 382 411 0.92944039 1.075916

Jim Forrest 145 163 0.88957055 1.124138

Willie Reid 226 262 0.86259542 1.159292

Robert Hamilton 247 293 0.84300341 1.186235

Jimmy Fleming 240 295 0.81355932 1.229167

Max Murray 121 154 0.78571429 1.272727

George Henderson 161 223 0.72197309 1.385093

Billy Simpson 163 239 0.68200837 1.466258

Ralph Brand 206 317 0.64984227 1.538835

Kris Boyd 112 180 0.62222222 1.607143

 

Jimmy Smith is still out in front but Forrest rockets into second place and Boyd lumbers into tenth.

 

Some surprises. The (by me )much maligned Maxie Murray is in this exalted company, also the respected but (by me) under-rated Billy Simpson.

 

Willie Thornton and Bob McPhail don't make it. And what's this? Where's Super? He's twelfth after McPhail and just ahead of Thornton.

 

Statistics - they tell you everything. Except of course the quality of the striker's inside men and the strength of the opposing defences and indeed the strength of his own defence to keep the ball up to him. Interesting, though.

 

(The figures looked quite neat when I typed them but they don't read very easily on screen)

Edited by Scott7
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You wonder how many Jim Forrest would have ended up with if he hadn't been blamed along with George McLean for that Berwick defeat. Forrest with 145 from 163 in just 3 and a half seasons kicked his last ball for Rangers at the ripe old age of 22.

4 months later Rangers played Bayern Munich in the CWC Final with defenders Roger Hynd and Dave Smith up front, losing 0-1 aet...Forrest's scoring record in European competition was excellent also - 6 (all in the European Cup in season 64/65) from 9 appearances (7 EC, 2 CWC)

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I assume there's some appearance limit to the average strike rate table, otherwise I'd have expected to see Marco Negri up at the top?

 

EDIT

 

Oh, yeah, players who scroed 100 goals. Just ignore me!

Edited by RabiDuck
Numpty!
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...sticking with Jim Forrest:

 

He had a love affair with the League Cup, scored 50 goals from 37 appearances...

 

63/64: 16 from 10 (inc. 4 in the Final against Morton)

64/65: 18 from 10 (scored both goals in 2-1 win vs Celtic in the Final)

65/66: 10 from 10 (he did miss two gilt-edged chances though - before Celtic ran out 2-1 winners, both goals coming from penalty kicks

66/67: 6 from 7...Forrest got injured 11 days before the Semi Final against Aberdeen which was being played just 10 days before the Final, the game finished 2-2. 5 days later he missed out on the replay too, but Rangers won that 2-0. Forrest never recovered from his injury for the Final where we lost 0-1, again to Celtic.

 

Nowadays, if you read the above about a player, you would probably be reading about Messi or Ronaldo.

Edited by Bearman
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