 Wednesday, 18th May 2011 09:37 A look at the forwards in today's fourth part of the season review. Only Peterborough scored more goals than Saints which is remarkable seeing as Saints didnt have a settled attack all season. Rickie Lambert played more games than any other Saints player, starting 45 out of 46 league games and usually completing most of them, however rarely in the season was he able to forge a partnership with one of our other forwards as for most of the season Nigel Adkins seemd unable to decide who should play alongside him. By his standards of the last couple of years, this was not a good season for Lambert, his goal record of 21 was third less than he scored for Saints the previous season, at times there seemed to be something lacking in his play that had been there last term, its hard to put your finger precisely on it, but certainly in some games, especially away from home Rickie was a passenger and strangely he was rarely substituted, his goal tally was still reasonable at 21, but again a significant number of these were penalties and to be blunt Lee Barnard has a better ratio of goals to minutes on the pitch and if he had taken the penalties their tallies would be reversed. But Rickie still made a valuable contribution to the team, alongside his goal tally he also had ten assists and as the season got into its final quarter he started to find his form again, certainly he was getting better service from the wings, Dickson made half the number of appearnaces as Harding but had twice the number of assists which tells you something about the quality of the crosses, early in the season Puncheon was disinterested and perhaps another factor was the injury to OXO, our young starlet had the skill to cut inside and score goals himself, this perhaps meant that he didnt use the option to cross as much as Rickie would have really have liked, when OXO was injured and Guly played there, Guly put in more crosses and this helped Lambert. Anothe rplus for Rickie was his assists, he got into double figures with 10 and thats a good total for a forward, all things being equal, this was a bit of an up and down season for Lambert, there were times that he should have been dropped but strangely wasnt, but overall for most of the term he was worth his place. The position alongside him though was another matter, Nigel Adkins seemed happy to play Lambert whatever his form, but the second forward's spot was not so straightforward, Lee Barnard looked the obvious answer but mid season Adkins seemd loathe to play hi, Ok Barnard had his well documented brush with the law, but he was still fit and still scoring goals and often would come on late and notch a goal, but this still didnt see him returned to the starting XI the following game. Barnard was by far and away our best striker last season in terms of goals to minutes on pitch ratio, more to the point his workrate made things happen, how often was he fouled giving either a penalty kick to Lambert of a good shooting position outside the box? it was no coincidence that later in the season as Barnard was picked regularly the goals and the consistency returned to the team. Other main attacking option was Guly, the Brazilian seemed to be played at times that he didnt deserve his place and because of that sections of the crowd would often turn on him, but this would be unfair, Guly had skill of his own and made some great contributions to the team both up front and from midfield, again his goals to minutes on field ratio matched Lambert's and he had a few assists as well, the problem being finding his true position and perhaps because of that he might struggle next term again to find a regular place but be used wherever the occasion merits either up front or in midfield. Guly let no one down when he played and again as his confidence rose from a run in the side, his play improved. David Connolly was another strange one, by his own admission he had been fit since December, yet Adkins declined to even give him a run off the bench until circumstance forced his hand, when it did, Connolly showed the manager just waht he had been missing and at a time when Saints push for automatic promotion looked like it may falter with the injury to Lee Barnard, up stepped Connolly to weigh in with three vital goals in the run in, not to mention some very clever play in and around the box to show that in terms of skill and experience he was the best striker at the club. Connoll's availability made the signing of Jonathan Forte a little strange, Saints had been linked with big money bids for Chalie Austin and Craig Mackail Smith in the transfer window, so supporters were a little shocked and underwhelmed when the only genuine newcomer's signature in January was Forte for an undisclosed presuambly small fee. It wasclear from the start that Forte was not a major coup, it raised eyebrows as to whether Saints actually had any money to spend in January at all and that the aforementioned pair were nothing more than stalking horses to convince our supporters we were minted, certainly if Austin was plan A, Mackail-Smith Plan B, it was a big gap between Forte at Plan C, he was more like a Plan Z. His career stats showed him to be a journeyman lower league striker who had never set the world alight, in his four seasons at Scunthorpe under Adkins he had never been first choice and at one stage had been loaned out for half a season to Notts County, a very strange signing in that where managers often go back and sign players from their old clubs, usually they are players they actually picked on a regular basis. Forte did have his moment however when he was in the right place and the right time twice against MK Don's and kept Saints promotion push on track, we have that to thank him for, but I would be very surprised if he is still at the club in a years time and if we dont sell him before next season I wouldnt be surprised to see him out on loan come September. Given his tally of 2 starts and 8 off the bench, you have to concur that he was keeping out Connolly and when we compare Connolly's contribution this could have been very very costly Saints main four man strike force only accounted for 47 of our 86 goals scored, a statistic that shows just how many players we had that knew where the net was and all four of them should be able to make the transiition into the Championship, ironically perhaps the biggest question mark to be able to do this though hangs over Rickie Lambert. The problem for Lambert lies with his pace or rather lack of it, will he be able to step up a level, I feel that he will, Ok he isnt Premier class but in the second tier his overall game will more than compensate for his lack of pace and I think he can be a success. Barnard will step up because his game is based on workrate and that wont change, likewise Guly who has the skill to flourish at that level, this leaves the only question mark being over David Connolly, again it is because Nigel Adkins just didnt fancy him as a player it seems, so has the Northern Irieland international done enough in the final run in to prove he is worth another deal, I personally would say yes, he has been fit since Xmas and could have and should have played more, as it is he appeared in 15 games and that is a reasonable total given the circumstances. Saints fans would of course like to see Saints bost the forward line with someone like Mackail-Smith, given Guly's ability to play in midfield as well this would not make it one striker too many and we could have room to bring one in, the big question is, do we go for a proven man at this level or look for an up and coming back up from the lower leagues. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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