Can Anyone Beat Les?

[Wheelbarrow repair man]

After posing a Question about the Great Jimmy Sirrel. 

I've decided to ask one Regarding Notts County's all time Top Scorer Less Bradd.

That being Do you think Les's Record of 125 League Goals, will ever be Beaten?

I know Macca had a Good Go., in the two seasons he was at the Lane. Les of course scored 137 goals in 398 games for the Magpies. Tony Hateley is 2nd on the list with114 goals in 215 games. Jackie Sewell scored 104 goals one more goal than Tommy Lawton's 103 but it took him 193 matches compared to Tommy's 166. Finally rounding off the Top 5 all time Notts scorers Tom Keetley scored an Amazing 98 Goals in 110 matches. That My Fellow PON Members is one Hell of a Strike Rate. ( All Data from Google Search and Wiki Pedia)

It does make you think how many Goals Macca may have scored, if he'd have seen out the New Contract he signed for the Magpies prior to his Move to Millwall. And you never know, he just Might, Might Return to the Lane One Day.

[Wheelbarrow repair man]

Let's just add a Little Bit of Spice, to the Above Question, by elaborating on it.

Do you think it was harder to score Goals at the Time Les was at his Peak, or Nowadays in Macca's Era ?

[Piethagoram]

Macca to return next season...and yes!

Defenders much better nowadays

[Chris]

I think we would have to have a striker that is prolific, and here for the majority of their career. I do think it will be broken, I thought Macaulay Langstaff would leave having earned the record. There's every chance that he might come back, probably not next season but in the future. Even at 30-years-old I think he would bag goals in our squad.

It's going to take a lot of effort to break it, if not Langstaff, than I say, someone who can score 15–20 goals per season and at the club long enough to do this. It's possible.

I'm not saying this is true, but there was a rumour going round that we sold Macaulay Langstaff to protect Les Bradd's record.

[menzinho]

I don’t think so, not anytime soon anyway. Macca was probably the closest we’ll get for a while and considering he was only here for 2 seasons he did astonishingly well to get as many as he did especially when you consider Les had the luxury of 11 seasons! Imagine if Macca had been here for that long, we’d probably be looking at a total of over 200 goals!

Jatta has made a good start but he’ll probably need to be here for a number of seasons to get close to the total and that rarely happens these days. And even if he continues scoring, he’ll soon attract the attention of clubs higher up and that’s another problem. A striker who’s banging them will always have bigger clubs wanting to sign them and sadly there's always going to be a club that can offer a contract that Notts just can't compete with.

[KingMaynard]

I don’t think we will if we remain a League Two team, maybe not even if we establish ourselves as a League One team. Macaulay Langstaff would have been the only exception to this because he scored for fun. I think the quality would have to be someone with better abilities than most League One teams because they don’t stay around long enough.

[liampie]

i dont think we will see it beaten either until we are more successful. league two is limited, but its possible. when was the last time a league two team had someone who scored 120+ goals?

[Robbie]

I think it is going to be very difficult to get a player to stay long enough at a club to break goalscoring records.

I think Les Bradd's record will possibly never be broken. With agents ruling the roost nowadays & wanting to make their cut out of any transfer money, successful players will be under pressure from all sides to move to a bigger club.

If Macca is still struggling at Xmas, I hope that Notts will phone Millwall & offer to take him on loan for the rest of the season, then negotiate a permanent transfer back to Notts. Then the record might be broken.

[upthepies]

Not likely within the next 3-5 years. It will take an exceptional talent, and Macaulay Langstaff is the first player I honestly believe could beat it. You don’t find strikers of his quality that often at this level, so I think Les Bradd’s record is safe for a while longer.

[Wheelbarrow repair man]

I would like to think Macca will return to the Lane one day, maybe towards the end of his career around the time of his mid thirties. Then again he may not be pulling up any trees at Millwall, but all it needs is a new Head Coach to come in and all that could change, then again a move to another club could prove to be the charge he needs to get back into his scoring groove. After all there were all sorts of rumors that Macca was going to end up at Leeds, not long after he'd signed for Millwall, which was Debated on this site. And I still can't shake the feeling that sometime in the future Macca is going to end up playing for Luke Williams again.

But back to Les in answer to my own Question, it does seem it was harder for a Striker to score goals when Les was at his peak, than it is nowadays. Defenders seemed a lot Meaner back in the Day. Another Question I'd Love to ask the man himself. If Les had gotten the Service that Macca did over the past two seasons during his time as the Top Notts Striker, how many more Goals does he think he may have added to his Total?

 

[NottsLoyal]

I think it’s unlikely. It will take a special player to beat it, and I don’t see Macaulay Langstaff coming back to Notts, at least with years on his playing time to beat the total. He might come back when he’s over 30, but no time soon. I also doubt anyone will outscore Langstaff for some time.

[lambleypie]

I believe it’s a record that won’t be broken in my lifetime. I hope Les Bradd keeps his record because he deserves it. He’s a legend and a fantastic player. It might be beaten one day, but not for many years.

[NCRichie]

Who knows? It doesn’t seem likely to be beaten any time soon. We could be in the Premier League and it would be difficult to beat that amount of goals, so I don’t think it gets any easier further up.