For those of us "lucky" enough to have been around the last time we were (and possibly even if you weren't) in the third tier of English Football I thought it would be useful to compare our two strikers of that era with our current "goalscoring machine".
Derek's first touch was, at times, that of an elephant whereas Flash's main attribute was his ability to hold up the ball and bring players into the game.
Flash was also superb in the air and anyone who saw him in the latter stages of his career would be surprised that he actually started as a winger. Benson certainly isn't hopeless in that regard but isn't one to look for non stop "flick ons". Killer, on the other hand, couldn't win a ball in the air to save his life. His jumping two seconds before the ball was delivered to put the centre half off was, frankly, embarrassing at times.
Killer's main asset (apart from, of course, his ability to find the back of the net) was his strength, pace and aggression. Be it the ball from wide into the box or the one over the top you knew that he would be fighting (sometimes literally) to get there first. And when he did the ball nine times out of ten ended up in the back of the net. Neither Flash nor Benson has that extra gear.
Of the three I would say that Benson, closely followed by Killer, is the most instinctive goalscorer but this strength being his weakness means that he does heavily rely on early balls into the box.
Finally, with regards to shooting, Flash would have been the best of these with Killer (when he got it right) not too far behind. I've yet to see any real evidence of Benson having a shot on him.
In summary Benson and Killer live and lived for scoring goals but, to my mind Benson, is actually a "half way house" between Killer and Flash.
If Benno can get us 25 to 30 goals this season he might just elevate himself to the level of our former striking heroes.
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Lay off the drugs mate
Far too early to treat as a legend and also too early to moan about his contribution (IMO).
As long as Benson keeps sticking the ball in the back of the net, I'm happy. But comparisons to legends is (IMO) slightly disrespectful.
FTR - Didn't Paul Walsh get over 20 goals in 80/81 season? Is he a striking hero of ours? Benson has been here 5 minutes compared to Hales & Flanagan and time isn't on his side!
I'm dreadfully sorry if I've offended anyone in doing so and that I may not have got across quite what I was trying to do.
If he turns out half the player Killer or Flash was I'll be happy
I actually do think that, given the right service, he could get 25 plus goals for us this season. Whatever people say we haven't had a "poacher" like him for years. But he still has a lot to do to reach cult status.
as for cult status we sure need someone to replace Corey Gibbs ;)
1. Rickie Lambert 30 Bristol Rovers/Southampton
2. Billy Paynter 26 Swindon Town
3. Grant Holt 24 Norwich City
3. Lee Barnard 24 Southend/Southampton
5. Jermaine Beckford 23 Leeds United
6. Steve Morison 21 Millwall
7. Charlie Austin 20 Swindon Town
I think it is premature to compare him abilitywise with Killer quite yet in the same way as my earlier comparison with Barry Endean on another thread has, as I hoped at the time, also been proved wrong!
From Barry Endean to Killer. Benson has made the journey from the ridiculous to the sublime!
Is he our penalty taker now because I had assumed he was. It didn't do Burton's tally too much harm after all ;-)
We all know that that isn't going to happen for several reasons. One Benson is too old and for the second the game has moved on. Killer never made it in a bygone era in the top flight and had he be playing now they wouldn't now either. He simply didn't have enough skill to play in a modern day 4-5-1 or 4-3-3.
Not light exactly but putting two and two together from various snippets I heard.
Killer was 33 or so at the time and coming to the end of his contract at the end of that season. He was allegedly one of our better paid players and finances were tight. There was also a question mark over offering a new contract to an aged player who was also picking up the odd injury by then.
Keith Peacock was aware of all this and was able to offer Killer a deal to the end of 85/6. Killer was local to Gillingham and the convenience offset any shortfall in wages so he went for it.
Replace Benson with Mendonca and then you could have an interesting debate.
Super Clive (when fit) was for me the best overall striker I have seen play for us. The season we went up through the the play-offs he was sublime. Touch, vision and deadly infront of goal. If the bloke had been lucky with injuries and had a bit more pace he would have been playing for a much bigger club than us. Was absolutely buzzing when we signed him. Remembered the hatrick he scored against us for Grimsby.
If he gets 15 from open play, that will be a decent return in his first season in L1. However he is a third of the way after a quick burst of goals there so 20 is perhaps not so unrealistic.
Pretty sure NLA said that he scores his goals in little bursts. 5-6 in 5-6 games then 5-6 without a goal etc. On that basis its very difficult to know how many he will get over the course of the whole season. We should be expecting 20. If he gets them is a totally different matter.