IN CASE you didn't notice, Wayne Rooney yesterday equalled Sir Bobby Charlton's England goal-scoring record, when his penalty against San Marino, his 49th for his country, brought him level with his Manchester United predecessor.
Well done oor Wayne, except, with a strike rate of 0.46 goals per game, Rooney, in truth, doesn't even touch the magical 0.5 gpg mark, the bottom line for a genuine international-class striker.
He actually is now dead level with Sir Bobby, and as everyone knows the younger Charlton brother was more a midfielder who weighed-in with a few goals, rather than an out and out striker.
In fact, if you want to check-out the list of genuine world-class English international strikers, ie, guys who hit the net regularly over a lengthy career, rather than being hot for a season or so, Rooney doesn't make it.
England's top post WWII striker, in terms of goals per game, was actually Tommy Lawton, a man whose top-line career was ruined by that second global conflict. Lawton scored 22 goals in 23 internationals, giving him 0.96 gpg, more than twice as prolific a rate than Rooney's. Second in the list is 'The Lion of Vienna', Bolton icon Nat Lofthouse, who scored 30 goals in 33 internationals - 0.91 gpg.
Then comes Jimmy Greaves - 44 goals in 57 internationals - 0.77 gpg, followed by Gary Lineker,48 goals in 80 internationals - 0.6 gpg.
Of course, none of these true legends played in "The Greatest League in the World", as the tame English media now terms the over-hyped, over-priced and over-inflated FA Premiership.
Scotland's top two post-war goal-scorers, Lawrie Reilly and Denis Law don't quite match the statistics of England's top four. Reilly's 22 goals in 38 internationals equates to 0.58 gpg, while Law's 30 goals in 55 games shows he scored at a rate of 0.55 gpg. Still better than the "world-class" English strikers of the Premiership years - Michael Owen, Rooney and Alan Shearer.
Given that England has usually been a better team than Scotland, attacking more and creating more chances, Law and Reilly are right up there and definitely above the 0.5 gpg threshold which separates the great from the merely good.
Of course, if you want to see a truly prolific British international goal-scorer, you need look no further than Wembley Wizard Hughie Gallacher, whose 24 goals in 20 internationals comes out at an unbelievable these days 1.2 gpg.
Never mind, we cannot have the FA Premiership and its few "English Stars" undersold, can we?
ON A weekend when, for no good or apparent reason, there were no Premiership games on in Scotland, you might have expected the MSM to have lowered their sights a wee bit and maybe covered some of the lesser leagues a wee bit better.
Naturally, those members of the Lap Top Loyal, not on Scotland duty, filed their prasie of the RTA, perhaps waxing a bit more lyrical, but, for instance, there is precious little recorded about the second preliminary round of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
This is a wee bit disappointing, particularly as the mighty Talbot got their campaign off to a winning start by beating Hermes 4-0 in Aberdeen. Tucker Sloan's boys are unlikely to win the big Scottish this season, but, with the right draws, they could go far, and, having got their Troon reverse out of their system, I would, were I a betting man, fancy a wee wager that the Junior Cup will be back at Beechwood come next June.
GOOD to see our Under-21 team winning in Nornireland at the weekend, by the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment