Aleksandar Mitrovic claims highest-scoring season record with 43rd Fulham goal

Aleksandar Mitrovic’s two goals in Fulham’s 7-0 win over Luton gave him the highest-scoring English league season record for over half a century.

The Serbia striker has surpassed Guy Whittingham’s 42 goals for Portsmouth in 1992-93, the most in the current 46-game league format, by one with one game remaining of the Championship season.

Here, the PA news agency looks at Mitrovic’s historic season.

Ricky Miller had a 40-goal season in the National League for Dover in 2016-17 but Whittingham’s 42 made him the last man to achieve the feat in the top four tiers.

With Mitrovic reaching 43, you have to go even further back to find a season to match his – not since 1965-66 has anyone scored more, and even that 44-goal campaign came in the fourth tier for Kevin Hector of Bradford Park Avenue.

It was a further eight years back, 64 years ago in 1957-58, that Tommy Johnston scored 43 goals in a second-tier campaign – starting the season with Leyton Orient before joining eventual promotion winners Blackburn. Arthur Rowley netted 44 at that level for Leicester the previous year.

Derek Dooley’s 46 for Sheffield Wednesday in 1951-52 is the post-war record for the second tier, and the next mark in Mitrovic’s sights, while the all-time record at that level is 59 by George Camsell for Middlesbrough in 1926-27.

Camsell’s tally was surpassed by one a year later in the top flight as Everton’s Dixie Dean set an all-time record for an English league season. Mitrovic’s 43 lift him into the top 20 of that list but, while his tally is a record for a 46-game season, it is worth noting the other records listed were each achieved in just 42 matches.

Mitrovic has found the net in 28 of his 43 league appearances this season and has now scored more