Preston North End in Numbers: The search for a 20-goal-a-season striker

Three times in the last five campaigns, 12 goals have been enough for players to finish PNE’s leading scorer.

In 2018/19, Alan Browne and Callum Robinson both finished on 12 league goals, Robinson getting another in the League Cup.

The season before, Sean Maguire finished as North End’s top scorer with 10 league goals despite missing four months through injury.

Mind you, Jordan Hugill had got eight in the league by the halfway mark before he was sold to West Ham.

Hugill was top scorer in 2016/17 with 12 in the league.

In the 2015/16 campaign, Johnson was top of the pile at PNE with eight league goals.

Joe Garner was North End’s top scorer for two seasons running in League One before the return to the Championship.

Garner scored 25 in the 2014/15 promotion campaign and 18 the year before.

In the 2012/13 season when Simon Grayson took over from Graham Westley, midfielder Nicky Wroe was PNE’s leading scorer in league action with eight goals. The statistics show that finding that magical 20-goals-a-season striker has been a long running problem.

There’s a strong argument that Hugill was on course to be that man before his sale for £9.5m to West Ham.

Even getting someone pushing 15 goals and just beyond would help North End’s cause in sustaining a play-off bid rather than falling short as they have done three years running.