With no Aleksandr Mitrovic to strike fear into the heart of second-tier defences, the race for the Championship’s Golden Boot is anyone’s to win this season. But if Jay Rodriguez is perhaps a predictable name at the top of the charts – the Burnley striker has been here and done it all before – you certainly couldn’t say the same of Jerry Yates.
Just three months into the new campaign, Blackpool’s late-blooming centre-forward already has more goals this season than he did during the entirety of 2021/22.
He’s scored against Burnley. He hit braces against Watford and Sheffield United. And, after snaffling an 80th minute winner away from home at Coventry City last weekend, Yates moved into pole position in an intriguing battle to be named the second-tier’s most prolific marksman.
Rangers, West Brom and Premier League clubs like Blackpool striker Jerry Yates
“I’m absolutely delighted for him,” Blackpool team-mate Gary Madine says of Yates, who has come a long way since playing fourth-tier football with Swindon Town in 2020 (Lancs Live).
“He works his socks off for the team. He’s the fan’s favourite and rightly so, and I’m dead chuffed for him. I hope he keeps scoring. I hope we keep hold of him but people are going to start watching him soon because he’s top scorer in the league and I can’t see him missing at the minute.”
Madine isn’t wrong.
According to the Scottish Sun, Rangers are one of ten clubs who scouted Yates during Blackpool’s 4-2 Lancashire derby victory over Preston North End recently, Michael Appleton’s man for the big occasion stepping up to the plate once again with two well-taken goals.
Watford and an underachieving West Brom are keeping tabs too. As are Premier League duo Brentford and AFC Bournemouth; Yates’ market value rocketing from £200,000 to £5 million in the space of just two years.
‘He’s in fantastic form’
“He’s capable of dealing with the ball with his back to goal as you need to as a nine. He’s got lots of pace and energy,” Appleton says.
“I’m delighted for him. He’s in a fantastic vein of form. He deserves all the plaudits he’s getting. And the biggest thing for me is to keep on top of him and not let him let up in any way, shape or form and keep performing the way he is.
“I think he just loves playing football.”
With just three points separating Blackpool from the relegation zone, Yates’ penalty-box instincts are the Tangerines’ best weapon in their fight against the drop. So, with interest rising on both sides of the border, February 1st cannot come soon enough already.
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