Since Ron Saunders first dragged the Canaries scratching and pecking into England’s top football division in 1972 several hundred players have represented the club – including many dozens of strikers.
But which of these strikers was the best? Who managed to hit the back of the net most frequently? In short, who was the most prolific?
Ranked by a simple goals per game ratio, the following table ranks in descending order the scoring effectiveness of all those strikers who have played more than a handful of games for our club.
Obviously, there are some caveats. The internet-sourced data is as accurate as I can find but if there are errors please let me know and I’ll endeavour to update the chart.
Also, the figures don’t take into account any mitigating circumstances. For example, players who regularly came on as a substitute and rarely played 90 minutes (eg. Lee Power or Dennis Srbeny), or those who sometimes played in positions other than striker (eg. Dion Dublin or Chris Sutton).
Also, many prolific scorers such as Hugh Curran and Ken Foggo have been omitted as they were considered wide-players rather than centre-forwards.
Hopefully, there’s the odd little surprise here and there and some names you may have forgotten. But ultimately, the longevity of a scoring career is the true mark of a prolific player.
Short bursts may mislead on occasion. As the old saying goes: ‘There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics!’
How many of the top ten would you have guessed?
Really interesting article Chris – you can’t beat a hefty dose of statistics! The question of ‘who has been City’s most prolific striker?’ is an intriguing one. Stats wise, before I read your table I thought that Pukki would definitely be up there because he has such great movement, gets in the right positions and is such a natural finisher. Rob Earnshaw, I have to confess I’d completely forgotten just how many goals he scored in his short spell with us – pretty impressive goal return, but again great movement and such a fabulous natural finisher. However, I’m going to be a bit controversial here and give my award of City’s most prolific striker to Grant Holt albeit statistically he is not quite in the same bracket as Pukki and Earnie. For me it’s the fact that he scored lots of goals in Div 1, Championship and Premier League. Thats pretty impressive because at each step-up in level he had to adapt his game significantly – that really is the sign of a quality player.
Can’t disagree, Notts_Jon, a perfectly valid opinion. Many arguments on this subject will have legs. One thing that must affect a player’s stats are which division they were playing in I guess. It must be more difficult to score goals the better defenders you come across. Really appreciate the comment though. It’s always nice to know what other people think.
Hi Chris – that’s an interesting take. I’m not usually one for stats but I enjoyed that.
I’d rate myself no better than seven out of ten. The ones I wouldn’t have got are Idah, Lita and Busby. And none of them in 1,000 years either.
I’d be tempted to put Notman in your Curran/Foggo category and there’s also a case of that for Hucks I reckon. I would say he was very much a wide player first and a striker kind of second, but with his ability to cut inside [plus outside and anywhere he fancied] there s a case for both.
Can’t believe Flecky finished so low in the table!
Thanks Martin. Agreed. Sometimes a striker’s contribution is not just about scoring goals, it’s creating them for the other striker – or just disrupting the opposition’s defence. As for Notman, I didn’t mind him as a player, it’s just he didn’t score. Like Henrik Mortensen. (NB. HM not included as played too few games.)
Good stuff, Chris. Stats aren’t everything, but they’re a great starting point for a discussion.
The key factor that’s not reflected in that simple table, I think, is which division those goals were scored in. It’s much harder to score in the top flight than elsewhere. That’s why I’d take the opposite view to Notts Jon – because Holt had so much of his City time in League 1 and the Championship, I’d slightly downgrade his record versus (for instance) Ted MacDougall.
Food for thought!
Hi Stew
I’m inclined to agree with you on the Holty issue for what it’s worth but……
Anybody who can pull his team shirt up after scoring against Liverpool at Anfield [?] to reveal a T with “from the Unibond Premier to the Premier League” on it deserves my utmost respect.
Right now I can only think of Ian Wright, Jamie Vardy and Troy Deeney who could share that claim to fame 🙂
Thanks Stewart. I agree about the divisions. Scoring when playing against Virgil van Dijk at his peak has got to be a tougher nut to crack than playing against a 39-year-old journeyman playing out his days in League 1. Top division goals should count for more. Perhaps we should create our own version of the Duckworth Lewis method to correctly assess the most effective net-bulgers?
That could get us into deep waters! Interesting thought, though.
By the way, I wasn’t meaning to cast any aspersion on Holty. Martin’s comment was well made, and I love the guy as much as anyone else.
Cheers!
Indeed. Holt the Magnificent. He met every challenge and just kept on scoring. Hughton’s lack of adventure cost Holt a few more goals and shortened his NCFC career. I like Hughton as a bloke, but who’d want to be a forward playing in his team? It’s like he completely forgot the opposition had a goal! Bless.
I reckon you guys should go for it – I’d love to read it if you did.
MFW could always patent it as the Sadler-Lewis method, of course.
Haha! Nice one, Martin! Am working on the logarithms as we speak…
Agreed, be useful when we have to go off for bad light!
Let’s not forget that half his NCFC career was in the PL and in his first PL season he was the second highest scoring Englishman in the league.
He even scored 8 (while completely unsupported) under the ‘defensive’ Chris Hughton.
Fair comment, Dave. Even allowing for the Chris Hughton effect, though, his stats do perhaps underline the difference between divisions.
In the (almost) half of his City career playing in the PL, he scored 23. In the (just over) half playing in League1/Champ, he scored 45.
Great comments, David. Holt was brilliant at every level, including the PL. What if he’d got that much-vaunted England call-up? I bet he’d have scored a few there an’ all! Best wishes.
Some great and really interesting comments and views. Just to follow up, as others posters have said the majority of Holt’s goals were outside of the top flight but 15 PL goals in Season 1 (under Lambert) and then 8 in Season 2 (under Hughton) as DB points out is pretty tasty! I might be wrong but in my reckoning this would place him second behind Chris Sutton for PL City goals. I think the point that I was trying to make and didn’t do particularly well was to score lots of goals at ALL levels during his City career is pretty impressive. To have the footballing intelligence to adapt and modify your game to different levels is a rare quality to have.
In the PL, this was against some world class defenders but the style (not just the quality) of defending varies as you go down the leagues, it become a little more ‘agricultural’ so to speak! It doesn’t always transpire that a relegated PL quality player takes to the Championship – slightly different context but Timm Klose in his first Championship season springs to mind, Robbie Brady another. I guess a somewhat rhetorical question – bolt Teemu Pukki into the City League 1 championship winning side and would he have been as prolific? Personally, I’m not so sure he would have had the strength and power to dominate defenders in the way that Holt did.
Holt’s ability to mix it at different levels and still come on top just emphasised his quality.
Excellent piece Chris.
It is interesting to see how close Grant Holt and Super-Mac are, I think Iwan would have been up there with them if it wasn’t for his self confessed awful first season. And the greatest ever is between them 3, Kevin Drinkell, Teemu, Chrris Sutton & Dean Aston.
Robert Earnshaw’s average did surprise me, and I do remember being gutted when he left. Dean Ashton was probably the best striker we ever had. I think he would have been England’s centre forward for years but for the awful injury that ended his career. ( As Darren Eadie would have been the left winger that England have been needing for years, again a career tragically cut short)
As you say John Deehan, Craig Bellamy and Chris Sutton among others played various positions other than forward so it is a hard one to answer as to The Greatest.
Another player whose career was cut short was one of my favourites, Peter Silvester who for my money was in a different league to some of the other forwards we have had. He like Graham Paddon was never the same player after that dreadful injury.
I only started going in 1969 so my memory before that is a bit hazy Chris, but I always thought Hughie Curran was a centre-forward ?
It’s lovely to reminisce about great times in these dark days, so please keep up the good work.
Thanks Tim Ball. I agree entirely on Dean Ashton and Darren Eadie. Both denied multiple England caps by injury and two players who should’ve stayed longer. Earnshaw was sold for virtually the same amount we paid for him which bearing in mind his scoring record was an appalling bit of business. Guess we needed the money. Hugh Curran was a bit before my time so didn’t see him play. Internet stats are a bit vague on his record other than it was obviously very good. The headline Wiki entry has him with 46 goals in 112 apps with a goals per game ratio of 0.412 which would put him 8th in the list. But Wiki goes on to say he scored 53 goals but not how many more games it took him. Other sites aren’t helpful either. But it seems he would have been right up there. Nice one, Hughie!
If you discount Iwan’s first season when he was overweight and unfit, then he would be in the top ten. I was a season ticket holder in those days and I couldn’t believe how bad he was, but what a transformation, he became a Hall Of Famer, a star.
Even despite the bad start he virtually achieved one goal every three games, which is very good indeed. Sometimes it’s about what the player brings to a team rather than just the goals. Roberts, Fleck, Huckerby, and Holt were all enormous influences over and above their goals.
Great article, Chris and I really enjoyed reading the comments too.
I know he wouldn’t qualify for the table….but I am right in thinking that Mike Walker played Darren Eadie up top for a season? I’m sure Eadie hit quite a few goals circa 1996-97? I think it might have been a bit like the Nathan Redmond experiment at Saints.
I wonder how Eadie’s goals to games ratio would compare to some of our other strikers.
Great read.
I’d also forgotten quite how awful Coote was. He was played, a lot, during my UEA days so I got to see him play far more often than I would have liked. I also saw Siberski’s debut. He was awful, yet scored, so some deemed him as the next saviour.
Sadly I also saw Dave Strivaka play too, both of whom would no doubt be keeping Coote company in your table.
I tripped over a number of disappointments along the way compiling the list. Some things you don’t need reminding on! There were some good players there though, but just didn’t have a scoring touch.
I agree about Eadie, he was very nearly – and very possibly should have been – an absolute superstar. Not dissimilar to Raheem Sterling. Timing and injuries, eh?
As it was, the best guess on his figures I can find is 39 goals in 204 games (other sites show fewer games) which is a goals per game ratio of 0.191, which puts him about 51st on the list. One in five is not bad for a winger.
Thanks Martin.
Going back to our discussion of divisions, a quick calculation of top flight goals seems to underline its significance.
In the top flight Grant Holt scored 23 goals in 70 City appearances, a goals-per-game ratio of .328. On that basis he’s overtaken by several others, including Ted MacDougall (.486), John Deehan (.421), Chris Sutton (.418) and Justin Fashanu (.389).
No single stat is the full picture, of course – and the last thing I want to do is denigrate Holty – but it may be an interesting perspective.
Thanks Stuart. A useful perspective – without taking away anything anybody achieved. Best wishes.