Our golden goal scorers

'Le God' is our finest all-time player, but in another nostalgic look at the island's great footballers,

Rob Batiste casts his eye over the top 10 post-war strikers MATT LE TISSIER is the greatest number nine we never had.

Le God rattled in 169 goals in his last season in the domestic game and the chances of this little island unearthing someone to rival him in terms of the art of scoring goals are as high as Guernsey winning the FA Cup.

The big debate is who, after Le Tiss, is the best striker we've ever had?

Was it another Le Tissier? Was it St John, of Blanche Pierre Lane, Craig, of California Surf and Rangers, or the deadly Ray, from the Corbet Field?

There are statistics to help us judge but they tell only part of the story.

Richard Payne's splendidly detailed statistical work on domestic football has ground to a halt over the last decade and, as a result, direct comparisons of players on a goals-per-game ratio are not wholly dependable.

The final stats on the likes of Kevin Le Tissier, Craig Allen and Tony Vance are not available.

The earlier ones serve as a valuable guide, though, and the top 10 post-war strikers are largely founded on Payne's painstaking findings.

But sport is not all about statistics and perhaps someone would care to tell the Americans that.

While scoring goals is the foremost role of the metaphorical number nine, it is not everything.

Three of the strikers listed today played in an era when bulldozing goalkeepers into the back of the net was part of the centre forward's skill. Mark Hughes was a great striker but not a goal machine as Shevchenko was. Drogba has not always been prolific but, boy, he puts the wind up centre halves.

How do you accurately judge Keegan against Dalglish, Berbatov to Keane, Crouch to Kuyt and Henry to Adebayor? It's nigh-on impossible.

The following 10 had many different attributes and in placing them in order I have taken into account longevity and time in the local game, not purely weight of goals. I have also taken into account the opposition and respective Muratti records.

Again, it is not in the slightest bit definitive, but it's nostalgic fun and so here goes.

No. 10 - Micky Brassel, star of the 1954 Muratti.

It was while leading the Belgraves line that he won his first Muratti cap in 54 and off he sailed to Jersey where he scored twice in each half to make the most memorable debut in the 100-plus years of the great fixture. Guernsey won 5-3 and the game is indelibly marked as Brassel's Muratti.

All told, he played for 11 seasons, four of them for Bels, as many for Rangers and finally three for the Tics. When he threw away the boots, he had scored 144 goals in 166 club games, plus 19 in 28 representative ones.

No. 9 - Henry Davey, the Mark Hughes of his time.

Centre halves knew they had been in a game when 'H' was about.

In 1966, the Saints striker was sensationally brought back for the replay by a selection committee working at odds with the coach, Frank Mackwood, who later resigned in protest. Davey had not played in weeks, but he made the difference and although it was John Loveridge's hat-trick that everyone who was there will remember, it was his strike colleague's physical mayhem that rattled Jersey so much.

In 293 games for Saints, he scored 192 times, plus nine goals in 31 island matches.

No. 8 - Neil Hunter, one of the small band of players who have scored a hat-trick in a Muratti final. And he still lost.

After an unspectacular junior career, Hunter made up for lost time when he returned from university. First for Rangers and then St Martin's, he rattled central defenders for years with his powerful left-foot shooting, bullet headers and sheer strength.

He retired with 220 club goals from 276 matches.

No. 7 - Jim Eker, North and Guernsey's most prolific all-time striker in terms of goals-per-game ratio.

Over 16 seasons, nearly all of them with North, he rattled in 230 goals in 208 games, scoring 30 hat-tricks.

Eker debuted for Tics in the 50-51 season, scoring once in the two matches he played. Strangely, he did not reappear in Priaulx football for five years, when he scored three in three for Rangers.

But after his move to North in 56-57, the goals flowed and the legend grew. In 62-63 he scored 53 club goals in 33 games with nine hat-tricks.

No. 6 - Les Collins, arguably the island's all-time forward player.

Certainly the greatest winger Guernsey has produced, but Sir Les was more than that. He was a goal scorer and goal maker.

In 463 club matches, he scored 315 and for the island, which he represented a record 115 times, he added another 47 goals.

Whether he played outside left, inside left or centre forward - and he filled all those roles in Murattis - his lightning pace, outstanding fitness, strength and shooting power made him the star he undoubtedly was.

No. 5 - Alan 'Tich' Bougourd.

Has there ever been a more consistent, long-serving and deadly striker in club football?

I would argue, no.

In 608 games for Vale Rec, the little man with the big heart scored 428, invariably ghosting in among the big men to nick goals at close range.

He did not do piledrivers, his physique did not allow him to bully defenders, but he intimidated with a remarkably Corinthian approach and attitude which lasted until the end of his first team career. He could not be rattled.

Kick him if you could catch him and if you did, he would simply bounce back up and take his revenge with a goal or two.

Only at Muratti level did he fail to do the business, but he was competing with some greats. He spent much of his 11-game Muratti career as a sub, while the Le Tissiers, Allens, Hunters and Fallaizes of this world took centre stage. But in the modern game, he would be an automatic choice.

No. 4 - Ray Blondel, the electric-heeled inside forward of the early Vale dynasty of the mid 70s and through the 80s.

The 73-74 season was 'Super Ray's' tour de force, with an amazing 51 club goals in just 26 games.

In only four matches did he fail to score and along the way there were six hat-tricks as well as telling performances in both the semi and final of the Muratti.

Blondel hit four in the 6-0 win over Alderney and, in his preview of the final, Rex Bennet prophetically foresaw that 'Super Ray' would sink Jersey. At Springfield, the Vale hit-man scored both goals in the 2-1 extra-time win and it was little short of a sporting crime that he never appeared in another CI showpiece.

No. 3 - Kevin Le Tissier.

Many pundits would have him at the summit, but as good as he was - well over 400 club goals - I feel a little cheated by the man who inspired Vale and North to Priaulx titles and for a few seasons lit up the mundane life of Bels supporters.

'KLT', as a former colleague dubbed him, had everything as a footballer. He should have been a professional. In terms of raw ability, he was not so far away from his youngest brother.

But did we truly see the best of him? I doubt it and Jersey will be glad we did not, considering the trouble he gave them down the years.

The words 'peak fitness' don't sit comfortably alongside his name. Had KLT been as dedicated as Tony Vance, he would have scored so many more.

And like Pele, he could have played in any position bar the midfield 'water carrier', such was his all-round talent.

No. 2 - Craig Allen, the best of which we sadly never saw.

Having burst onto the Muratti scene with a remarkable junior record, he won a Muratti winners' medal in 78 and did not reappear in the fixture for another 13 years, his professional career in North America done with.

I guess - and we will never know because we did not see him at his peak - Allen was the best striker Guernsey has produced other than the 'Almighty'.

He was fantastic when he left and still superb when he returned in his early 30s.

Given that he was in so much demand in the US, playing outdoors and in, Allen was top-notch.

Had he chosen to chase it, a successful career in the English leagues would have been his.

His local career stats are incomplete, but given that he netted 60 goals in 68 senior club games as a junior, it is unimaginable how many he would have netted had he remained this side of the water.

The winner of four Junior Muratti caps - believed to be a record - this man was sheer class, possessing fantastic skill, finishing ability, strength and bravery.

No. 1 - John Loveridge, but only just.

Yesterday, it was Allen, on Thursday it was KLT.

What swings it his way is simply not a fantastic scoring record, but the effect he had on his club side and at Muratti level and the knowledge that he gave it everything.

Long John could not have done much more.

Possessing phenomenal pace, he was also good in the air, was brave and had a tough streak in him. But, crucially, he consistently scored in big games.

His Upton record underlined his class and who among those who saw it will forget his hat-trick in the 66 replay?

* Next time: The best of the unfulfilled and underrated