So, do we need to have a bit of a chinwag about Boro’ being a bit goal-shy – and how it isn’t exactly new for the 2024-5 season? Like him or not as gaffer, we definitely think it’s unfair to lay our current scoring woes at the door of Alex Revell. It’s more than that. We don’t want to use the word deep-seated or entrenched – because that would be alarmist. But you need to go further back to mark out where our current lean spell started to seep out.
This goal-shy thing ain’t a Revs thing…
OK, we admit you can argue that Revs is implicated by virtue of being on the coaching staff under the ol’ regime. But Boro’ have been goal-shy all year so far. And that means it started on the watch of Steve Evans; the goals starting to properly dry up after our 1-0 win at home to Cambridge United in late February. Our final 12 fixtures yielded nine goals if we managed to count properly. A large part of that run saw our manager banished to the stands.
Revs is now 11 matches into his second stint as boss; spanning this season and last. In that time, Boro’ have scored 12 times. Not great by any stretch, but vindication perhaps that our problems in front of goal were inherited. A total of 30 goals in 32 fixtures (all competitions) leaves us poised on 0.94 per game. You don’t need to be a mathemagician to see how Revs’ return is in excess of the 1.00 marker. For now, that is…
The contributing factors
So, what went wrong? How did we go from a side with 37 goals from 25 League One outings last term to one that added 20 in 21… and then another five in five league fixtures so far in this current campaign? And does it open up any clues as to how we can sort it out?
One factor was a combination of injury and a loss of form for top scorer Jamie Reid as last season wore on. BGR finished the campaign with a highly impressive 22 goals to his name; something that earned him international recognition. Yet, he only scored four in 20 games since the turn of the year. After belatedly returning to the side after injury this season, the goals are still to come back for Reidy.
Linked to the above, another factor is the inability of anyone else to properly step up with the goods when BGR hit the statistically-likely lean spell. No player has outscored Reidy in 2024. Carl Piergianni, Kane Hemmings, and Elliott List are next up with three apiece. And in behind them are Louis Thompson, Nick Freeman, Jake Forster-Caskey, and – unbelievably – Terence Vancooten with two. Seven others have one to their name.
And then there’s owen goal.
So, no-one really decided to seize the initiative when the goals dried up for BGR. Listy has given it a shot this season. Yet, he’s the only player to score more than once.
Other factors? Well, we subtitled this ‘The Ballad of Steve Evans’ because the old boss had some bizarre inclination to collect touchline bans earlier this year. It obviously isn’t one of those factors you can directly attribute our goal-shy nature to. But you tell us if you reckon having your manager absent from the dugout does anything good for your prospects.
Fatigue probably reared its ugly head during the second half of last season. Still, not really something that will wash with our current goalscoring issues.
And that brings us on to style of play. Did we get found out a bit last season after shocking many pundits with our strong start to the season? Perhaps. Did we fail to have Plan B there waiting for when we couldn’t overcome opposition with Plan A? Mmm, yeah – and that’s not gone away. Oh, and do we generally look uninspiring and unthreatening. Again, we’re not all that sure it’s something we didn’t pick up a few months ago and have carried on with.
Should we be worried of goal-shy Boro’
Yes and no.
No – because we have a super-strong defence at the moment. No side has kept more clean sheets since the start of the 2022-3 campaign (as we write). Defensive solidity means that it gives us a decent go of at least snatching a draw if we’re not putting them away at the other end. And it goes without saying that it gives us less of a mountain to climb – because going one goal down at the moment could easily feel like that’s that.
No also because it’s still early days in the current campaign and there’s a long way to go. In dealing with new faces and injuries, Revs is having to balance his side as best he can – and we daresay he probably hasn’t yet been able to pick his preferred starting XI. That then will feed into the style and patterns of play he wants to deploy across the field. Yes, September seems like a time you should be getting there. But let’s give him mitigating circumstances…
There is, of course, a yes to this argument. It is concerning that Boro’ are waddling at under one goal per game this calendar year – and, in the league at least, this new season.
We say that for two reasons. The first is that bad habits breed bad habits. Nothing can ever be as bad as the 2019-20 campaign. And yet it took us six league matches to score one goal. Just as losing is a sticky wicket to get caught on, so too is being goal-shy. So, the sooner we nip it in the bud will be for the better.
The second reason for saying “yes, be worried” is based on the other years in which we had less than a goal per game to our name. In 2020, we averaged a pathetic 0.83. For 2019, it was 0.98. So too was the case in 2021. Now, we don’t want to put a massive red flag on that – but one manager was common to all three of those years. We were last relegated in 2013-4, with Boro’ averaging 1.00 and 1.17 in 2013 and 2014 respectively. It’s dangerous territory.
What do you make of it all…
All we’re doing here is presenting the facts – and our commentary – without any inclination to have a firm opinion. Some of you will be thinking that our time will come – and the gates will fling open to the goalscoring asylum. Others of you can’t see where we’re getting a next goal from. And the rest? Well, you’re just trying to work out which front two/three we put in the faces of our next oppo. Either way, we hope we go from goal-shy to goal-crazy soon.
