Goal drought looming?
27/07/05 | by Paul Severn

It’s an old cliché – Don’t read too much into pre-season. But as football fans we want to see our team stuffing every lower league side in sight before the season starts and raising our expectations for the campaign ahead. One goal in four pre-season games isn’t exciting anybody at the moment. There is a slight concern that Forest aren’t going to score too many goals next season. Virtually every team that gets promoted automatically has a 25-goal-a-season man, but at the moment, when Kris Commons isn’t on the field, Forest can’t score.

The new signings at the back and in midfield seem solid. Ian Breckin was a real coup and will fill the void left by Michael Dawson, while Gary Holt, Nicky Eaden and Nicky Southall are solid professionals. Yet we have yet to sign a striker, and if we can’t land the Southend top scorer (Freddy Eastwood), it’s likely that we won’t improve on the strikers already at the club.

So which of our forwards are likely to get the goals? Gareth Taylor is a certainty to start the Huddersfield game. He is a decent target man at this level, but doesn’t have the ability on the floor to be a 25-goal-a-season man. Scott Dobie has pace, works hard but doesn’t get in the box enough to be a true goal-poacher. Neil Harris still hasn’t scored a goal for the club and seems to lack the sharpness he has shown with previous clubs.

Many fans are excited by the return of Jack Lester. There is no doubt he’ll be a big influence next season, but he plays a deeper, supporting role, rather than being an out-and-out front man.

The two wild cards are David Johnson and youngster Spencer Weir-Daley. Johnson is a frustrating player, going from fans’ hero, to reject in just half a season. With his wages, he is unlikely to move on, but is also unlikely to figure unless he has a complete renaissance. As for Weir-Daley, no one can rely on youngsters, but if he takes his chances he will quickly move to the head of the pack.

Forest need to score a lot of goals to get promoted next season – Luton scored 87, for instance. We need somebody to step forward as the man who will grab a 1-0 on a Tuesday night against Blackpool, or we could be in for a very frustrating campaign.