OutByEaster? Posted August 11, 2009 Moderator Share Posted August 11, 2009 With the season almost upon us, it’s worth familiarising ourselves with the current squad’s achievements to date and some of the milestones they might pass in the next nine months. Caution: Numbers ahead. First up, it’s just possible that some of you might never have seen these two fantastic pieces of work by two of the finest Villa internet nutcases on the planet BOF’s list of villa’s all time goal scorers, (all of them, in order and then sorted in all sorts of interesting ways) and Jorgen Bolin and his collection of information on just about every single Villa game in history. Click here for BOF's list of goalscorers Click here for Jorgen's record of Villa games Well worth a read before any new season. Goals first then and the two men we’re most relying on for them this season; Gabriel Agbonlahor is at no. 72 in the all time goalscorers chart with 35 and John Carew is at no. 82 with 31. They’ll have a little duel between them this season to be Villa’s top scorer, big John has won the last two by 15 goals to 12 and by 14 to 11, but I’ve a sneaking feeling that Gabby might overtake him this time around. If not, then the race to 50 goals will be an interesting one to keep an eye on. Here’s the section of the goals table they currently live in, I think Gabby has a chance to catch his most recent peers and prove himself a more able Villan than Vassell and Joachim by seasons end. Carew will also be chasing some well known former players and should catch Milosevic and Taylor without too much fuss. They’ll both be looking to push into the top 50. [table color=#bccde9:162e6021b9] [mrow color=#8c333c:162e6021b9][mcol]P[mcol]PLAYER (Scoring seasons)[mcol]GOALS [row][mcol]45[col]Saunders, Dean (1992/95)[col]50 [row][mcol]46[col]Walters, Mark Everton (1982/88)[col]48 [row][mcol]46[col]Hamilton, Ian 'Chico' (1969/76)[col]48 [row][mcol]48[col]Johnson, George Edward (1897/05)[col]47 [row][mcol]49[col]Vassell, Darius (1998/05)[col]45 [row][mcol]49[col]Joachim, Julian (1995/01)[col]45 [row][mcol]49[col]McLuckie, Jasper (1901/04)[col]45 [row][mcol]52[col]Lochhead, Andy 'Bald Eagle' (1970/73)[col]44 [row][mcol]52[col]Anderson, William (1966/73)[col]44 [row][mcol]54[col]Taylor, Ian (1994/03)[col]43 [row][mcol]54[col]Campbell, Johnny (1895/97)[col]43 [row][mcol]56[col]Pace, Derek 'Doc' (1950/58)[col]42 [row][mcol]56[col]Goffin, Billy 'Cowboy' (1945/53)[col]42 [row][mcol]56[col]Smith, Stephen (1893/01)[col]42 [row][mcol]56[col]Hunter, Archie (1880/90)[col]42 [row][mcol]60[col]Edwards, George (1945/51)[col]41 [row][mcol]60[col]Walters, Joey (1905/12)[col]41 [row][mcol]62[col]Sewell, Jackie (1955/60)[col]40 [row][mcol]62[col]Walsh, Dave (1950/55)[col]40 [row][mcol]62[col]Cook, Billy (1926/29)[col]40 [row][mcol]65[col]Lynn, 'Stan The Wham' (1950/61)[col]38 [row][mcol]65[col]Dickson, Ian William (1920/24)[col]38 [row][mcol]67[col]Daley, Tony 'TD' (1985/94)[col]37 [row][mcol]67[col]Rioch, Bruce (1969/74)[col]37 [row][mcol]67[col]Smith, Les 'Schmidtz' (1945/52)[col]37 [row][mcol]70[col]Atkinson, Dalian (1991/95)[col]36 [row][mcol]70[col]Mortimer, Dennis 'Morty' (1976/84)[col]36 [row][mcol]72[col]Agbonlahor, Gabriel (2005-)[col]35 [row][mcol]72[col]Dorsett, Dicky 'Ironman' (1946/53)[col]35 [row][mcol]74[col]Miloševic, Savo (1995/98)[col]34 [row][mcol]74[col]Morley, Tony (1979/84)[col]34 [row][mcol]74[col]Chester, Reg (1925/35)[col]34 [row][mcol]74[col]Dickson, Billy (1889/92)[col]34 [row][mcol]78[col]Haycock, Freddie 'Schneider' (1936/39)[col]33 [row][mcol]78[col]Allen, Albert Arthur (1887/91)[col]33 [row][mcol]80[col]Hendrie, Lee (1997/06)[col]32 [row][mcol]81[col]Carew, John (2006-)[col]31 [row][mcol]81[col]MacEwan, Jimmy (1959/66)[col]31 [/table] No one else comes close to those two in terms of active goalscorers; Ashley Young needs three more to break the top 100 on that list, and there’s an interesting little battle amongst the midfield as to who will be first to double figures. Stillyan Petrov has five goals, Craig Gardner six, Steve Sidwell four and Nigel Reo Coker the outsider with three. So, who will be the first of our current crop of central midfielders to reach ten goals? My money’s on Fabian Delph. In European games there are a couple of people who might be keeping an eye on the scorers lists too. John Carew could well find himself the third greatest scorer of goals in continental football that this club has ever seen with just two swipes of his mighty right boot. More surprisingly, a hat trick would be enough to put Nathan Delfouneso into exactly the same position. Click here for our all time european goalscorers Appearance wise, our former skipper has left town and taken his 440 appearances with him, leaving us no-one even close to that level. In fact there isn’t a player currently on the books that’s within three seasons of joining the 34 players who’ve made 300 appearances for the club. Rather surprisingly, the man in this squad who has had the honour of pulling on a claret and blue shirt most often is Gabriel Agbonlahor who has 139 appearances behind him. There is group of players who joined with Martin O’Neill who should all play their hundredth game this season, with Carew on 78, Reo Coker 75, James Milner on 76 and Curtis Davies with work to do on 59 appearances. Wilfred Bouma (one of only four members of the squad who played under David O’Leary) will be looking to bring up his century of Villa appearances too, having been stuck on 90 for all of last season with his injuries. We might well see debuts from Eric Lichaj, Ciaran Clark, Fabian Delph, Stuart Downing, Habib Beye, Chris Herd, Shane Lowry, Andreas Weimann and Jonathon Hogg with the likelihood of one or two more being added to that list as August draws to a close. Hopefully they’ll push through these little milestones on the way to glory, and maybe we’ll see some of those traditional, familiar targets finally breached too; a player scoring twenty goals isn’t out of the question, another record signing isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, we’ll see. What none of them have as yet is a medal that they’ve won for Villa in any major competition and if we can put a one in that column this year, I suspect that none of the others will really bother us a jot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villafan306 Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Top Stuff OBE. I expect Gabby to pass the 50 goals mark this season and if Carew stays fit I see no reason why he won't either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimcohen Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 This is Villa stats heaven, great work! I love this stuff Hope to see both Gabby and Carew pass 50 goals this season as villafan306 says, and would like to see Young get into the top 80 as well! Petrov, Gardner, Sidwell, Delph, Milner all to pass 10! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancsVillan Posted August 12, 2009 Moderator Share Posted August 12, 2009 Excellent excellent piece OBE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted August 12, 2009 Moderator Share Posted August 12, 2009 Good read that Scott, Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted August 12, 2009 Moderator Share Posted August 12, 2009 Looking forward to all the milestones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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