McLaughlin on hunt for goals

GOAL . . . Ryan McLaughlin celebrates his goal against Peterborough

THOUGH he is still learning on the job, it still burns with converted striker Ryan McLaughlin that he didn't quite manage to make it two goals in two games last week.

With the score at 1-1 against Bradford, the 22-year-old cut in from the left flank and shaped a shot a foot wide of the far post with visiting goalkeeper Colin Doyle beaten.

ILLUSTRATED
On the back of a strike in the Peterborough victory, which illustrated perfectly John Sheridan's mantra of strikers making their presence felt in central areas, if that chance had gone in, it could have nailed down McLaughlin's role as part of the front two.

As it is, he now faces fresh competition for a spot at Chesterfield tomorrow from a fit-again Darius Osei as well as new boys Chris Taylor and Tope Obedayi.

"I was very disappointed looking back at that Bradford strike. A lot of times in training and even in the warm-up, I was scoring those," said McLaughlin, who has made 26 appearances this season in various roles. "I feel I should have scored and two in two would have been great for me.

"If I do get the chance up top again, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but at the end of the day scoring is your job."

On tomorrow's Spireites clash, McLaughlin describes it as a "six-pointer" and hopes the team can heed the lessons of the previous game away to relegation-threatened opponents Shrewsbury.

"We are very confident and we have a few new additions too, so we look to go there and win, and nothing less," he went on.

"As they are down at the bottom, you can also class it as a six-pointer. We have won a couple of games recently and just want to continue that to get out of the relegation battle as quickly as we can.

"Shrewsbury made it difficult for us and they played well, to be fair to them. We need to learn from that and from the style of football they played.

"A lot of it is going to be a battle. We just have to be up for that - but that's what you enjoy, going to these sorts of places and getting a result. It makes it that bit sweeter."