Jovon Makama’s rise has been nothing short of sensational, to the point where he is now preferred to an England Under 20 international in the side.
Few could have predicted that a year ago, the academy product would be one of the first names on the teamsheet and putting in eye-catching performances of strength and power. That’s exactly where he is and, if selected, he could make history for his goals next week.
Goals, perhaps, are one aspect of his game that some have felt might not quite be there, but against Manchester City Under 21s on Tuesday night, he could join an elite list of four strikers who have scored in all four EFL competitions in a single season.
This season, Jovon has bagged in the League Cup against Harrogate, the league against Leyton Orient, and the FA Cup against Chesham. That means, if he bags in the EFL Trophy, he’ll have scored in all four, and only four men have done that since the introduction of the Football League Trophy at the beginning of the eighties.
Plenty of players have three in the bag. Lasse Sorensen only failed to net in the EFL Trophy last season, while Ted Bishop only needed the FA Cup the previous season. It’s not uncommon to see a triple threat, but four? That really is an achievement.
We know Jovon has a chance to join an elite list of four, but who are those four players? You’re about to find out.
Anthony Scully 20/21
The last player to achieve this feat was Anthony Scully in the exciting 20/21 season. What’s remarkable about this haul is they came in order – he bagged against Oxford in League One, then away at Bradford as we won 5-0 in the League Cup. He then waited two games before grabbing one at Mansfield in the EFL Trophy in October. A goalless month followed before he added one as we thrashed Forest Green 6-2 in the FA Cup.
Tony Battersby 98/99
Battersby was the original Football Manager find. Nowadays, we often hear about players we sign in terms of how they did for other people on Football Manager, but on the old Championship Manager, Battersby was a monster as a Notts County man.
He scored two in three in his first matches, helping us to our first third-tier win after promotion, and grabbing an away goal in the old two-legged League Cup. He scored as we beat Stevenage in the FA Cup, a resounding 4-1 win, then helped us to the area semi-finals of the AWS Shield, scoring as we beat Hartlepool 3-0.
In the league, he also scored against Stoke and Man City, and on his day, he was as good as anyone we had at the time.
David Johnson 93/94
I’ve had to dig into the annals of history for this. Our £32,500 signing from Sheffield Wednesday was a crowd-pleaser but not a John Beck pleaser. He came in under Keith Alexander but didn’t get much of a shot after Beck took over. Still, in the 93/94 season, under KA, he bagged in all four competitions.
He netted eight league goals, the first of which came in a win at Hereford. He scored the only Imps goal of our FA Cup tie with Bolton Wanderers, which was live on Sky TV. In the Coca-Cola Cup, he netted in both legs against Everton, the epic 8-5 aggregate games. He also scored in two Autoglass Trophy games, including the northern semi-final against Carlisle United, which we lost in extra time.
Gary Lund 86/87
Gary Lund was a bit special – he played for England Under 21s not long before signing for us, and he eventually appeared in the top flight for Notts County. How we were relegated with a player like him, I’ll never know.
He was my hero as a kid, and with justification. He bagged in the opening day win against Colchester in 86/87 and later scored our only goal of a two-legged tie against First Division Charlton Athletic. Our FA Cup run was non-existent, but he was on the scoresheet as we lost 3-1 to Wigan on November 15th, and ten days later, he netted as we beat Scunthorpe 1-0 in the Freight Rover Trophy. In total, he netted 13 league goals, but just one after January 3rd.
Honourable Mentions
The feat was impossible to repeat in the National League, as we only had three competitions, the FA Trophy, FA Cup and League. However, in 2016/17, Terry Hawkridge was on target in all three. Famously, he scored the goals to send us back to the Football League, but he also netted against Oldham as part of our FA Cup run, and in the opening two rounds of the FA Trophy against Nantwich and Gateshead. However, to make him part of the ‘four competitions’ club, he did score against Grantham Town in the Lincolnshire Senior Cup in July, before the season started.
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