Goals win games, son - whether striker gets them or not

"Goals win games, son."

Paul Cook used to say the simplest things and such was his manner and aura, his words would be portrayed as profound.

Early in pre-season in 2010 he called into our flat in Collooney on the outskirts of Sligo.

Myself, Alan Keane and Matt Blinkhorn got the keys to our new home for the season and the following day he moved in next door, knowing too well he would be fed and watered for the season ahead.

These visits weren’t an unusual occurrence, he usually came in looking for a meal, have a bit of craic and to watch the football but, on this day, he came in with a pen and a notepad and he came in to talk about goals.

He began to explain to the three of us that if we were to challenge for the title, we needed to score over 60 goals in the season ahead, and so began his thought process on how he could gather the personnel to achieve it.

He started to jot in the notepad and announced without a glimmer of hesitation that I would score 10 goals from wide left, Blinkhorn, as a target man would do the same along with Gary McCabe playing wide right.

"I’m 30 short, I need a striker capable of scoring 20 plus, do you think Padraig Amond is capable Doyler, and Joey N’do, has he still got enough in him to produce."

"Yes, and yes," knowing I’d played with both players at Shamrock Rovers previously.

"The rest of the squad are more than capable of getting the team above the 60 goal mark."

He picked up the phone to start recruiting and off he popped next door.

Since 2014 the champions, on average, typically score around 70 goals per season, while the runners-up often find the net about 60 times. This ten-goal difference might not seem significant at first glance, but it's often the difference between