With 76 Championship goals to his name it’s no wonder Middlesbrough are pursuing Blackburn’s former Huddersfield Town striker Jordan Rhodes.

The Scottish forward has scored over 20 league goals in each of the last three seasons, the kind of strike rate that could push Boro to the top and into the Premier League if they could clinch a deal around £12m.

Should Rhodes make the move, Town – who sold him for £8m – will get 20% of any profit made by Rovers.

But how does his goal tally compare to the division’s greatest strikers?

Former Sunderland player Kevin Phillips has the record for the most goals scored in England’s second tier during the Premier League era (since the 1992-93 season),

That’s according to figures supplied by the English National Football Archive at www.enfa.co.uk

The now retired forward scored 150 league goals in what is now called the Championship, almost twice the number of Rhodes’ current tally.

He’s followed by former Wales forward Iwan Roberts – another former Huddersfield Town ace – who managed to bag 131 while playing in the division.

Clinton Morrison and disgraced forward Marlon King have both scored 123 each, while Paul Furlong has bagged 117.

In fact, it could take Rhodes another two seasons to break into the top 10 Championship scorers, by which time he will no doubt be hoping to be in the Premier League.

Andy Gray is the division’s 10th highest scorer with 106 goals, preceded by David Johnson on 110, Dougie Freedman and Robbie Blake on 113, and John Aldridge on 116.

Of course, football didn’t begin on August 15, 1992.

If we take all the seasons between the formation of the Second Division in 1892 and the formation of the Premier League in 1992, a player by the name of Tommy Briggs comes out as the division’s top scorer.

Briggs scored 251 goals (most of them for Blackburn) in the second tier of English football. That’s just one more than former Middlesbrough and Sunderland legend Brian Clough managed, 250.

Arthur Rowley scored 231, Wilf Kirkham 183 and Billy McLeod 181.

John Aldridge also makes the top 10 of pre-Premier League second-tier scorers, having managed 168.