Pope defends his contribution
Striker Tom Pope says that his recent goal drought was due to lack of chances after he scored for the first time in six games.
The 28 year-old striker scored his twelfth goal of the season in the 2-3 defeat to Gillingham but the forward says he would have scored more if he was given the right service.
Pope has now scored twelve goals in thirty six games, a ratio of one goal every three games and he told the press: “I could have won a few more headers or got on the end of a couple more balls, but at the end of the day I am there to score goals and I have had one shot in five games .
“I’ve had a couple of chances today and got a goal.
“People are after blaming somebody, and when you have a striker that’s not scoring goals it’s obviously his fault isn’t it?
“For people who base things on facts, they want to start looking into how many chances the strikers had.
“When you are not having chances it is difficult to score goals, no matter what you do.
“Last season we were crossing balls and getting balls into me in the box. In the last few weeks we haven’t done that.
“It has obviously been getting me a bit frustrated, and it has been difficult, but the gaffer has stuck by me and I have one goal today.
“We have scored two goals again. Last week we were 3-0 down (at Gillingham). I got brought off and we started pummelling balls into the opposition penalty box and got two goals back.
“In training everything is perfect, but it comes to a Saturday and too many people are doing what they want to do.”
Pope in stats…
Games: 132+13
Goals: 53
Goals per game: 0.36
However, in the last two seasons, Pope’s goals per game ratio is an impressive 0.51 or one goal every two games.