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GARY Madine knows he’s got some way to go before completely winning over fans at Wanderers – but the winner in a Lancashire derby is one heck of a start.
The striker dubbed “Goal Machine” in his more successful years at Sheffield Wednesday has been operating on a reduced service for the most part since becoming Neil Lennon’s first signing of the summer.
His superbly-taken goal to beat Blackburn Rovers was only his fourth of a season he freely admits has not gone according to plan.
Madine bears all the hallmarks of a classic Wanderers number nine but in a refreshingly honest interview with the local press soon after the final whistle at the Macron on Monday, the 25-year-old accepts he has not yet done enough to warrant the adulation.
“I’m my own worst enemy,” he said, fresh from the 77th-minute strike against Rovers. “I have got the attributes there to be a good player but sometimes I let myself down with consistency.
“The gaffer is always saying he sees little glimpses in training and then I’ll do something that is not so good.
“I haven’t earned the right for fans to sing my name. If I get a goal at the weekend, then one the weekend after that, maybe the fans will start to think ‘actually this lad is all right’.
“I don’t mind if they don’t sing my name because I’ll work 100 per cent regardless but it’s definitely nice to hear it.
Madine’s campaign was summed up by his performance against Blackburn – an agonising miss in the eighth minute after Zach Clough had hit the post followed by a thankless shift as a target man, then a wonderfully manufactured winner.
The Gateshead-born front man quite clearly has a sprinkle of magic in his locker, as anyone who saw his long-range effort against Cardiff City will attest.
Yet the more instinctive traits of successful striker still appear to be lacking, and Madine puts some of that down to a lack of confidence since his impressive start in pre-season under Lennon.
“If you look at the programme last week I said my best attribute was finishing,” he said.
“Every manager I’ve had over the last few years has said in training I’m one of the best finishers they’ve seen. But that hasn’t been the case since I have been here, I know that, but sometimes it just takes a little confidence boost like that and you’re up and away.
“I need to focus on trying to bring the better things together and then I am sure I can score a lot of goals in this league.”
Victory over Blackburn provided some welcome respite from the financial drudgery at Wanderers that has enveloped the club in recent months.
Events on the pitch have hardly helped to improve the mood. Madine described the 4-0 drubbing at Rotherham on Saturday as “embarrassing” but should Lennon’s side put together back-to-back wins for the first time in more than 12 months, then he insists anything is still possible.
“A lot has been put on the strikers for nor scoring enough goals, so hopefully that’s a turning point for me, personally,” he said.
“But from the team’s point of view we’re a really together bunch, there isn’t a bit of bad blood in the dressing room.
“We get on with each other but it’s a shame what is going on away from the pitch at the moment. I wonder whether that is hampering us a bit.
“Understandably fans weren’t happy at Rotherham. We weren’t happy, we were embarrassed as a team.
“I hope that was a late Christmas present for them and hopefully we’ll get a few more and get ourselves out of this situation.”
That Wanderers’ players will only be receiving a percentage of their December salary this morning, having not been paid at all in November, has clearly hit team spirit hard.
“We’re all together,” Madine explained. “It isn’t nice. If people go to work you expect to be paid and we haven’t had that for two months now but we have to be professional and get on with it. We’ll get paid eventually and we’d ask that the fans stick with us as much as they can and we’ll try to get out of this rut.
“It’s difficult because some people will be in different financial states to others.
“You have to be clever with your money and have a little bit saved – but people have mortgages and cars and they live to their means.
“The money can always run out. I’ve been okay for now but not for too much longer."
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/14172874.Gary_Madine_admits_he_has_not_justified_Goal_Machine_nickname/?ref=mr&lp=14
The striker dubbed “Goal Machine” in his more successful years at Sheffield Wednesday has been operating on a reduced service for the most part since becoming Neil Lennon’s first signing of the summer.
His superbly-taken goal to beat Blackburn Rovers was only his fourth of a season he freely admits has not gone according to plan.
Madine bears all the hallmarks of a classic Wanderers number nine but in a refreshingly honest interview with the local press soon after the final whistle at the Macron on Monday, the 25-year-old accepts he has not yet done enough to warrant the adulation.
“I’m my own worst enemy,” he said, fresh from the 77th-minute strike against Rovers. “I have got the attributes there to be a good player but sometimes I let myself down with consistency.
“The gaffer is always saying he sees little glimpses in training and then I’ll do something that is not so good.
“I haven’t earned the right for fans to sing my name. If I get a goal at the weekend, then one the weekend after that, maybe the fans will start to think ‘actually this lad is all right’.
“I don’t mind if they don’t sing my name because I’ll work 100 per cent regardless but it’s definitely nice to hear it.
Madine’s campaign was summed up by his performance against Blackburn – an agonising miss in the eighth minute after Zach Clough had hit the post followed by a thankless shift as a target man, then a wonderfully manufactured winner.
The Gateshead-born front man quite clearly has a sprinkle of magic in his locker, as anyone who saw his long-range effort against Cardiff City will attest.
Yet the more instinctive traits of successful striker still appear to be lacking, and Madine puts some of that down to a lack of confidence since his impressive start in pre-season under Lennon.
“If you look at the programme last week I said my best attribute was finishing,” he said.
“Every manager I’ve had over the last few years has said in training I’m one of the best finishers they’ve seen. But that hasn’t been the case since I have been here, I know that, but sometimes it just takes a little confidence boost like that and you’re up and away.
“I need to focus on trying to bring the better things together and then I am sure I can score a lot of goals in this league.”
Victory over Blackburn provided some welcome respite from the financial drudgery at Wanderers that has enveloped the club in recent months.
Events on the pitch have hardly helped to improve the mood. Madine described the 4-0 drubbing at Rotherham on Saturday as “embarrassing” but should Lennon’s side put together back-to-back wins for the first time in more than 12 months, then he insists anything is still possible.
“A lot has been put on the strikers for nor scoring enough goals, so hopefully that’s a turning point for me, personally,” he said.
“But from the team’s point of view we’re a really together bunch, there isn’t a bit of bad blood in the dressing room.
“We get on with each other but it’s a shame what is going on away from the pitch at the moment. I wonder whether that is hampering us a bit.
“Understandably fans weren’t happy at Rotherham. We weren’t happy, we were embarrassed as a team.
“I hope that was a late Christmas present for them and hopefully we’ll get a few more and get ourselves out of this situation.”
That Wanderers’ players will only be receiving a percentage of their December salary this morning, having not been paid at all in November, has clearly hit team spirit hard.
“We’re all together,” Madine explained. “It isn’t nice. If people go to work you expect to be paid and we haven’t had that for two months now but we have to be professional and get on with it. We’ll get paid eventually and we’d ask that the fans stick with us as much as they can and we’ll try to get out of this rut.
“It’s difficult because some people will be in different financial states to others.
“You have to be clever with your money and have a little bit saved – but people have mortgages and cars and they live to their means.
“The money can always run out. I’ve been okay for now but not for too much longer."
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/14172874.Gary_Madine_admits_he_has_not_justified_Goal_Machine_nickname/?ref=mr&lp=14
