ANDY BOOTH is looking forward to welcoming Jordan Rhodes to a select club.
Only seven men have previously reached 30 goals in a season for Town, with the current club ambassador the last to do it back in 1994-95, when promotion from League I was clinched with a Wembley win over Bristol Rovers in the play-off final.
Booth bagged his 30th beneath the Twin Towers to join Sammy Taylor (41 in 1919-20), George ‘Bomber’ Brown (37 in 1925-26 and 35 in 27-28), Dave Mangnall (a club-record 42 in 1931-32), Jimmy Glazzard (31 in 1952-53 and 32 in 54-55), Craig Maskell (33 in 1988-89) and Iwan Roberts (34 in 1991-92) on the list.
Rhodes is on 27 after his phenomenal five-goal haul in the 6-0 televised triumph at Wycombe a week ago.
Already among Town’s top-10 scorers with 72 in all, he aims to match Anthony Pilkington’s achievement of last season by scoring in six matches in succession when Oldham visit the Galpharm.
That would keep the 21-year-old firmly on course to become the club’s fastest ever to 30, a record currently held by Mangnall, who reached the mark on February 13, 1932, when he hit four in a 6-0 FA Cup third-round replay win over tomorrow’s visitors.
"Jordan is in amazing form and it’s brilliant to see," said Booth, who notched 150 goals during his two Town spells, putting him third on the all-time list behind Glazzard (154) and Brown (159).
"He is in one of those real purple patches where everything he touches seems to go in, but that’s not just good luck, it’s down to natural ability and hard work in training.
"Jordan’s overall game has come on in leaps and bounds, he can score with both feet and he’s also excellent in the air.
"That means he can contribute more than goals, and when you watch us defend set-pieces, it’s often his head that gets to the ball first.
"But a striker’s main role is to score, and he’s certainly doing that at the moment. You’d certainly back him to reach 30, and to be so close at this stage of the season is great news both for him and the club.
"Of course it’s not always going to be like this, because all strikers go through barren spells from time to time, but Jordan’s temperament is excellent.
"As the manager says, he is not afraid to miss, and you know that if the goals did dry up, he would just keep plugging away and doing the right things until they started to flow again."
