Gills strikers lack cutting edge

Short answer - I'm not sure it's League One.

Being somewhat stats inclined I decided to look at the minutes-per-goals ratio for every one of our players who have appeared up front for us this season. I included league and cup performances, loan and owned players, (and in the case of Oli and Griffiths) players who played either wide midfield or upfront. By adding up each minute they played I was able to find interesting statistics.

With a ratio of a goal every 338 minutes, Mullers can rest easy that he's not our worst striker, but he's not in the top two either (or top three…or…). With 5 goals in 32 apps he didn't even reach the dizzying heights of 9 goals he hit the previous season. With the second most appearances up front at the club this season he should have hit the net far more than he actually did.

More surprising is that eternal disappointment David Graham, is second in the list. Scoring 4 goals in 19 appearances, he actually rustled the net once every 220 minutes. Who knows what we would have done if he had been motivated enough to play for us on a regular basis.

The top goal scorer and player with best ratio is Chris Dickson - a result that will surprise no one. Although he made a total of 14 appearances, he was only on the pitch for 1012 minutes, so he ends up with a ratio of a goal every 92 minutes. Which if we could have had over the course of the season would have been fantastic. Shame the other strikers were less productive.

As for 150k striker Simeon Jackson, his figures don't look all that impressive at first glance but in my opinion this is down to the time it took him to settle. In his first nine games he didn't hit the net once but for the remaining nine he scored 4 goals. Meaning once he scored, he finished the season scoring roughly every other game. He looks to me like a striker we'll be able to rely on to score for us next season. And for those that are interested overall he scored once every 316 minutes.

Just to round off the other scoring strikers, Leroy Griffiths ended up with 2 goals in 25 apps and Denis Oli had 5 in 23, but being on the wing for many games it's hard to ascertain solid conclusions from their figures.

I have to admit I am absolutely astounded how much Delroy Facey played for us this season, especially when you look at his minutes-per-goal ratio. Delroy actually made the most appearances for a striker - appearing in 35 matches and being on the pitch for 2538 minutes. And how many goals did he score in this time? Three. This results in a stat of a goal every 846 minutes.

A record of almost a goal every ten games is, quite frankly, pathetic. This is from a striker who has played at the highest level in club football in England. I would write more, but it would only depress me further to see how much he played.

And just to round things off, I found out that we used 14 different partnerships up top this season (from the start of games) and we featured 12 different strikers. Obviously this includes the likes of Donovan Simmonds and Luke Freeman who barely played, but still highlights how we struggled to find a consistent strikeforce.

With the Gills only scoring 54 goals in 51 games this season the lack of final product up-front was reflected throughout the rest of the team and is something that will radically need to be altered for next season. With Stimson having a reputation for attacking teams, lets hope the close season allows him to bring that goal closer (sorry pun kinda intended). Maybe we should kidnap Chris Dickson - anyone with me?