Austin pushing for first team start?

The evidence would suggest that a debut first team start for new signing Charlie Austin could be on the cards, as Town's goalscoring woes continue.

At the start of the season, Town's strikeforce looked diminished, as we failed in our attempts to keep prolific goalscorer Simon Cox at the club, who made an inevitable move to Championship outfit West Brom. (Coxy's prolific record has taken a hit since this move as he struggles for first team starts. Di Matteo, if you happen to stumble upon this blog, offer him to us on loan!).

Barry Corr was another striking casualty, as the injury-prone big man didn't get a contract renewal from Wilson, and was subsequently released to later be snapped up by League 1 rivals Exeter City.

The highly slated but hard working Blair Sturrock fell by the wayside as Wilson took charge, being loaned out to Bournemouth and Torquay United, then later being released as his contract ran out at the end of the season. Sturrock now plys his trade for Mansfield Town in the Blue Square Premier.

In January of this year I watched a reserve team fixture against Swansea, mainly to get a look at two trialists who had one last shot to bag a short term contract from Danny Wilson. Frenchman Hamdi Razak earned his contract by scoring a hat-trick, but went on to make only 3 first team appearances in a red-shirt, before being released when his contract came to an end. The other trialist was a certain Jean-Francois Lescinel who can be found today in the left-back position on a weekly basis at The County Ground.

Lee Peacock finally gave in to a long term back injury that had been troubling him for 4 years, and went under the knife. His rehabilitation has kept him out of action since March. Lee made a return in the last game against Hartlepool in his fight to get back to full fitness.

Ben Joyce made his way up from the Swindon Town youth ranks, but last season made only 1 appearance for the first team before being released at the end of the season as another contract victim.

So going into this season, we were left with 2 strikers on the books, one led in the operating theatre and Billy Paynter. Now don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the big scouse, in fact, I'll be the first to say that he had a massive influence last season on keeping us up, and Coxy's goal tally, as well as his own. But Paynter is not an out and out goalscorer.

The transfer window was unkind to Danny Wilson, who had the full financial backing from the board, helped in part by the selling of Simon Cox and the cut wage bill. But as they say, money can't buy you trophies, and in our case, it couldn't buy us players, as we had contracts turned down and players snatched from under our nose, one Theo Robinson a prime case for the latter. Chairman Andrew Fitton went as far as brandishing agents as criminals, and their job as little more than daylight robbery. And on the opening day of the season, Big Bill was the only fit striker on the books, as we got a 5-0 hammering at the hands of League 1 new boys Gillingham.

For the 2nd league game of the season, we had managed to bring in Tope Obadeyi on-loan from Bolton. Then at the end of August, prior to our match with Southend, Wilson announced a Celtic-duo joining the cause on-loan; Ben Hutchinson and Simon Ferry, the former being a striker. And finally, after the Southend game, Wilson told us that Alex Revell, who had played against us just days before, would be joining on-loan from cash strapped Southend.

But still the goals haven't flowed and though we find ourselves in a healthy position just outside the playoffs, we have a goal-difference of -3 and our four strikers - Billy Paynter, Ben Hutchinson, Alex Revell and Tope Obadeyi have scored a measly 9 goals between them so far.

So whats wrong with one last throw of the dice? Stick the 20 year old Austin into the fray and see what he can do? Well if the above facts and figures weren't evidence enough that this would be going through any managers mind, Austin has scored an impressive 4 goals in 3 reserve appearances in a red shirt, bagging two yesterday afternoon against Plymouth. Food for thought perhaps?

Head of Player Development and Reserve Team Manager David Byrne showed a signal of intent for the striker prior to yesterday's reserve clash;

"He's been brought in to score goals and he's doing it with two in two so there's not a lot more we can expect from him. There are still parts of his game that we're working on, as it's a big step from where he's come from but he's keen, eager and most importantly he wants to score goals. He doesn't look out of place fitness wise, but there are still some edges that need to be polished and Danny's working on those on a daily basis. I think he'll prove to be a good addition to the squad."

The club AGM took place last night, and was dominated with on-field questions for Danny Wilson. After being asked about Charlie, Wilson's reply was:

"He has put himself in a great position after a great performance today. His levels of performance are improving and he could be in contention before you know it."

And one final piece of fuel for the fire, the Advertiser are this morning running an article called "Wilson tells strikers to start scoring or face the axe". So with the axe swinging, a gap could be left for Charlie Austin and Lee Peacock.

Oh and before I wrap up, I'll leave you with this comment from the AGM:

"The Club have a fantastic relationship with Simon Cox and we would like to think that if he did come out on loan, then we would be a very serious consideration for him."

Fingers crossed eh?