As he admits, Chris Martin has had a fair few seasons in professional football over the course of his career. However, in his view, last season ranks amongst the best after a 16-goal haul in League One.
The tally of goals for the striker itself was impressive but the context surrounding how he actually found himself at the football club in the first place makes last season’s contribution deserving of further plaudits.
Martin found himself as a free agent after leaving QPR at the end of the 2022/23 season and got the opportunity to train with Bristol Rovers, having still been based in Bristol given his time at Bristol City, before earning a short-term contract last September.
The Gas were desperate for a striker having missed out on the signing of Jonson Clarke-Harris from Peterborough United while allowing Ryan Loft to join Port Vale. Fast forward eight months and the 36-year-old had become the Gas’ most potent front man with 16 goals and ranked fifth in the League One golden boot race.
“In terms of a pure goal scoring season, I think one of my best,” Martin reflected to Bristol Live when asked where he ranks last season over the course of his career. “In terms of the chances that I converted and some of the finishes and the quality of the goals actually very highly. I quite liked a lot of the goals that I scored last year for different reasons technically.
“I think it was adapted slightly in terms of being that main person scoring goals, I know I have had that throughout my career but I believe there’s also a lot more to my game than just doing that. It’s about kind of finding your place in the team.
“Sometimes I’ve got a bit of a tendency to get attracted to the ball and want to get involved in the build up and link play a little bit, which I think last year, and probably this year too, but especially last year, maybe I kind of stepped away from that a little bit and figured out, okay, we need a goal scorer so sometimes you can’t always be involved in the build up.
“I think as you get older, it’s about preserving your energy a little bit as well to still be the person that can arrive in the box at the right time and still attack the ball. If you’re too far away from it too often then it becomes more and more difficult. So it’s just about understanding what is required in this team.
“I think most strikers probably have a certain number,” Martin added on setting himself a new goalscoring target this season. “I think growing up and throughout my time in football, 20 goals as a striker is kind of that number. I think it’s about improving really. I think if you’ve scored 20 or 25, whatever it is, you always want to improve the next season to be your best.
“I think most people would have probably a target or a minimum and I’d say there’s probably a minimum in my head and also a target where I’d say that’s a very good season.”
How close Martin can get to last season’s goals total is yet to be seen but the striker has had to endure a frustrating period over the course of the first couple of months of the season.
An injury sustained in pre-season saw the striker miss a handful of friendlies with the former Scotland international always set to miss the first two matches of the campaign through suspension for a four-game ban picked up after headbutting Cambridge United defender Mamadou Jobe.
However, in his first league start of the season away at Stockport County, Martin suffered a broken fibula which ruled him out for two months of action. Now, after making a gradual return to action in last week’s cup matches, the experienced forward is expected to start a league game for the first time since August when Rovers host Lincoln City this weekend.
The striker’s return is welcome indeed with Gatlin O’Donkor still ruled out with a hamstring injury while a late call is set to be made on Promise Omochere who is still feeling some pain and discomfort from an ankle injury picked up against Reading two weeks ago.
He didn’t have the liveliest of matches against Exeter City or Weston-super-Mare last week but once Martin gets service, you know that he can be deadly in and around the penalty area.
On his return to action, the Rovers talisman admitted: “It’s nice to be back involved from my point of view after what’s been a frustrating start to the season for me. It was nice last week to get some minutes under the belt, probably more than I actually thought at the beginning of the week as well. Everything reacted totally fine so I’m fit and ready for selection from here on in, hopefully for the rest of the season.
“I felt obviously a little niggle pre-season but I was kind of fit and available, ready to go from the end of that suspension. So that seemed fine. It was a bit of an innocuous challenge. Probably something I’ve seen or been involved in a few times and just so happened to crack my leg, I guess. It was frustrating but at the same time, it’s not like it was a muscle injury where you think maybe it was preventable or there’s an issue here or there. I guess it was a little bit easier to deal with. It was a bit of a freak.
“[You] just have to get on with it,” Martin added. “Get the rehab going which was a little bit tough because I could do so little in the beginning but once the bone was healed up and stuff, in terms of returning to play, it went quite quickly.
“I still am very confident that I’m able to produce that same form again this season as I was last season and hopefully I’m proven right very soon.”
Although there are some injuries in the camp at this present moment, a fully fit squad would offer Rovers a healthy depth of attacking options with the likes of Omochere and O’Donkor up front as well as Ruel Sotiriou and Shaq Forde who also came into the club over the summer.
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Whether Omochere is deemed okay to be involved on Saturday is yet to be seen but if he does miss the Lincoln clash, the Irishman will likely be involved in next weekend’s game against Crawley Town.
It’s been a mixed start to life at Rovers for the 24-year-old who has only scored two goals, both of which coming in the same game against Cambridge, but has demonstrated other attributes as part of his game, holding off defenders and linking up well with the forward boasting three assists to his name also.
However, as a striker and one who cost the club a record fee, naturally plenty of pressure has been placed on Omochere’s shoulders but Martin believes that the striker is showing positive signs.
“Promise has come to me a couple of times and I’ve gone to him pre-season and the early games as well, just with little bits of advice here and there to try impart what little wisdom I have on him and just try to help,” the experienced forward revealed.
“I think he has a very good attitude. He’s a nice kid and he is willing to learn which I think is a very important thing as a young player. In terms of the price tag, I don’t really think he’s too bothered. He doesn’t seem like it carries much of a weight on his shoulders to me, and you can’t help that.
“I think as a player it’s one of those things, whoever pays the money for you, whether it’s a few hundred grand or a few hundred million, it is something that you can’t control or focus on, so I’m sure he won’t be doing that.”