Second-year scholar Jack Goodman couldn’t hide his delight after scoring his 20th goal of the 2022/23 campaign in Rovers’ 1-0 win at Hartlepool United.
The striker’s goal was all that separated the two sides in the EFL Youth Alliance League despite the youth team having numerous chances to further their lead throughout the game.
After closing the gap at the top of the league to just four points, Goodman was elated to have provided his landmark goal at such a crucial time.
He said: “I’m very happy now that I’ve got that 20th goal because last week, after the Bradford game, I was sulking around a bit but now I’m just absolutely buzzing.
“I’m not done there though, I just want to keep striving for more so that I can get to the 25 goals mark and then maybe even more after that.
“To do it in a game like we’ve had against Hartlepool is amazing because it was the winning goal but we can’t let up now.
“We’ve got to keep striving forward, keep winning football matches and then hopefully when we come to the end of the season, win the league.”
Rovers had plenty of possession during the game in the North East and despite missing out on a bigger scoreline, the goal scorer insisted the three points was the priority from the fixture.
Goodman added: “In the first half there was a 20 minute spell where we played really well and I personally think they couldn’t handle us so we should’ve scored more than the one goal we got in that time.
“We slipped off the front foot a bit in the second half and played around the defence but we did really well to not get caught out and we all stuck to our jobs.
“At the end of the day, we’ve won the game and that’s all that matters at this stage of the season.”
Frank Sinclair’s side have five games remaining in the Youth Alliance League before they head into a merit league to round out the season, and Goodman felt his side know exactly what they need to do to make sure they have the best chance of success.
He said: “We’re in the final stretch of the season now so it’s really important that we all just make sure that we’re listening to what Frank has to say.
“We have to make sure we get the easy stuff right and keep scoring goals, whoever scores them.
“Personally I want to get to 25, or even 30 goals but we’ll just have to take it one game at a time and make sure that we keep getting positive results as a team.”