Luke Varney Is Not The Answer To Our Prayers

Luke Varney will be 34 in less than two weeks time and although it was great to see him score the other night, he is not the answer to our goalscoring shortage.

Even the goal he scored was more of an opportunist strike that had good fortune written all over it, as Derby keeper Scott Carson was caught by surprise and parried the ball into his own net.

I suppose he never thought our journeyman striker would ever consider shooting from such a long range and in truth, it was a shot that most goalkeepers would have saved under normal circumstances but Varney shooting from distance was not normal!

Now our manager Mick McCarthy is waxing lyrical about ‘ Our Reg’ and has even implied that if he can stay fit then there is no reason why he should not extend his contract beyond the five months that has been agreed by the club.

That is fine by me but our manager must not see this stop-gap situation as a solution to our rather limited strike force.

David McGoldrick will not be back until mid-November at the earliest and of course Daryl Murphy is already plying his trade with Newcastle United, which leaves us with an out of sorts Freddie Sears and Brett Pitman up front and Lion Best and Luke Varney as the only back up.

Compared to last season our forward line is looking decidedly weak and remember that Freddie Sears has not found the net in 32 attempts so we are relying more than ever on our midfield and our defence to find get us some goals as well.

Grant Ward is leading by example with four to his name from midfield but Kevin Bru and Cole Skuse are still drawing blanks and so too is Jonathan Douglas – although he is getting much closer and had a perfectly good goal wiped out against Norwich City.

Another proven goalscorer is still a top priority in the next January transfer window and our manager must not try to make do with what he has got.

If we can score goals in all departments then there is a chance we can survive until the New year – especially if Jonny Williams gets back into the team and Tom Lawrence can get a few goals going forward as well.

Lion Best is a bit of an unknown quantity but he is at an age when as a striker he should be close to hitting his peak and we can only hope that he settles in quickly and proves his worth.


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich