Friday 7 September 2018 13:53, UK
Who's scored the most league goals in the top five divisions of English football in 2018? It's not Mohamed Salah. It's not Sergio Aguero. It's not any of the leading lights from the Premier League or the Championship.
James Norwood has 20 goals to his name this year, including six in six games this season and the winner in the National League play-off final in May to secure Tranmere's return to the Sky Bet EFL.
Not bad for a player - named the Sky Bet League Two Player of the Month for August - who says he is still "relearning" the position after playing in midfield for his previous club.
He's modest about his goal tally - "it's going alright " - but tells Sky Sports that he had a "point to prove" when he joined Tranmere in 2015 from Forest Green Rovers.
"I knew Gary Brabin [Tranmere manager at the time] and had played against him a few times. When he rang me in the summer after my contract ran out with Forest Green and said he wanted me as a striker it was a chance I couldn't turn down. I had a point to prove that I have always been a striker and that's my best position.
"At Forest Green I played left and right midfield so I am relearning everything you need to do as a striker, like where you need to be, and the ball has just fallen in the right place at the right time."
Norwood, 28, has not played in the Football League since 2010 when he was at Exeter. It was a trial with the Grecians that he says turned him from a "lazy striker" into a more all-around player.
"I didn't do youth team trials anywhere and then I went on trial to Exeter and I just had to outwork the other lads," he says.
"I went from waiting around for the ball and scoring lots of goals to pressing defenders and working hard because football forgets you quickly and I had to try to make myself undroppable for whoever I played for.
The harder you work the luckier you get. It's paying off at the minute.
"I knew if I worked hard, even if I was having a bad game, I could still do something for the team. I incorporated that hard work into my game and the harder you work the luckier you get. It's paying off at the minute."
Norwood has previously described his style on the pitch as "annoying" as he likes "chasing after people". That fits well with how Tranmere play under manager Micky Mellon.
"We like to press," says Norwood. "The manager has a big emphasis on pressing from the front and we are always looking to keep our shape and stay around defenders and when it does get played across you are in their face and try to harry them. It's a cliché but as the attack we are the first line of defence."
Even when he was playing in midfield, as he was with Forest Green Rovers, Norwood scored 49 goals in 165 appearances. He was also their top scorer for two seasons in a row, but his departure was announced a day after Forest Green had lost in the National League play-off semi-finals in 2015. In his three full seasons with Tranmere he has scored 57 league goals and last season he netted a goal every 163 minutes.
Norwood's goals have been key in reviving the fortunes of Tranmere, who were relegated to the National League in 2015, ending a 94-year stay in the EFL. Chairman Mark Palios said at the time: "Today it is devastating, but tomorrow it will not be disastrous." However, spending three years in the National League (finishing sixth, second and second) was not part of the plan for a club that averages crowds of over 5,000 and spent most of the 90's competing in the second tier, even losing in the play-offs three seasons in a row.
Earlier this year the club closed their academy - previously one of the best performing in the country - and Norwood does not downplay the importance of being back the EFL.
"It's massive," he says. "If you look back at when we got promoted at Wembley we were in a position where people were going to lose their jobs, we lost the academy and we spent a bit too much time out of the EFL and financially it punished us.
"It's massive for the club and it's important to get the club going forward instead of stagnating or going backwards which it had done four or five years ago. We are getting the fans back in, bringing in better players and there's a better catchment area in the EFL so we are doing everything we can to do well and hopefully it all comes together."
'EFL have to rethink transfer window'
Norwood describes Tranmere's start to the season as "solid", having won two, drawn two and lost two of their six League Two games.
Asked about the step up from non-league to League Two, he adds: "It has been fine. As a player you know what level you are capable of playing at and I think I can play this level.
"Everyone has a point to prove coming up from the National League and maybe not having played league football before. They probably think they deserve to and they are taking their chance.
"You have the likes of Jay Harris, who I have played against in the league below for years and could have played in the EFL comfortably, but he hasn't had the chance. Everyone is getting their chance now to prove why teams should have taken a chance with them."
And what about his own game - has he had to adapt after eight years away from league football?
"It's so frantic in the National League that when you are on the ball there are three, four or five people trying to get it off you but in this league there's a bit more respect and people know if you get too tight you can get spun.
"When you come from the environment of having no time to having a bit of time, half a second feels like 10 minutes. It's just a case of adapting to the league and doing what you were doing before and making a few better decisions over the 90 minutes.
"I know what I am good at and I am always trying to learn new things. The way we play suits me and I've just been trying to work on my finishing and have worked hard every day to get my ratio up.
"I would like to keep the ball a better but once I get used to having a bit more time it might be easier for myself and the hopefully the goals keep flying in."
