Edinburgh City's Blair Henderson can't predict end-of-season goal total

Striker Blair Henderson has just enjoyed the best four months of his career since joining Edinburgh City.

Blair Henderson says he could not have hit 25 goals without his team-mates

Not only are the Citizens top of Ladbrokes League Two moving forward into 2019 – irrespective of the outcome of the Capital side’s final fixture of the year at Berwick Rangers tomorrow – Henderson has already surpassed his personal target of reaching 20 goals this season. Last weekend’s second-half strike in the 2-0 win at Cowdenbeath was the 24-year-old’s 25th in all competitions.

Ecstatic with the way things have gone both collectively and from a personal point of view, Henderson is adamant he isn’t about to start plucking numbers out of thin air as to how many he might reach by the end of the campaign.

“Before the start of the season I had targeted 20 goals,” he told the Evening News. “My previous best in one season was 18 so to score 25 before Christmas is a really good return. I didn’t expect to have scored so many at this stage of the season.

“I owe it to the rest of the guys in the team because I’m not a striker that is going to glide past three or four players and smash one in the top corner. That’s not my game. It’s all about the deliveries and the assists and me getting on the end of them. I’ve been getting two or three chances every game which is just what you want. It’s really good to be involved in as I’m feeling confident and go into every match thinking I can score.

“But a lot of things can happen in a short space of time in football. I’m not going to reset my targets. I’ve managed to hit 20 already and that’s great. I just need to keep going out there and enjoying myself. Anything now is a bonus but if you said to me now I’d end the season with 25 goals then I’d be disappointed, of course I would be.”

Having amassed a five-point lead over nearest challengers Peterhead, Henderson is delighted with the application shown by James McDonaugh’s squad, none more so than best friend Allan Smith who has made a huge impact recently.

“Allan has been one of our best players these last couple of months, really since he’s broken into the team,” Henderson said. “It took him a bit longer to get a run in the team but he’s definitely taken his chance. It’s working really well our attacking play with Sheps (Scott Shepherd) in there too. Yes I’ve scored a lot of goals this season but you need others to chip in. Graham (Taylor) has also stepped up and he’s maybe not scored a lot of goals but he’s done a lot of other good things. We’re also getting goals 
from the back four which is massively important.

“We said about a month ago that if we could get until the end of the year and still be in the mix then we’ll have a good chance with the quality we’ve still got to come back. Josh Walker hasn’t played this season, we’ve got Danny Handling who’s not played for eight weeks and he’s close to a return too.”

Henderson returns to his old stomping ground at Shielfield Park tomorrow where he spent 18 months scoring 24 goals between January 2015 and July 2016.

“I’ve scored a few goals there so it’s a place I enjoy going to. It’s a nice grass pitch so we’ll be able to knock the ball about. It will be another difficult game as they aren’t far off the play-offs so we’d take a 1-0 every day of the week. It’s been an unbelievable four months of the season, that’s for sure,” he added.