In-form Walker sets Mansfield Town goals target for the season

In-form Mansfield Town striker Tyler Walker is targeting 20-25 goals for the season after last night's match-winning brace against Grimsby Town.
Mansfield Town v  Grimsby Town.
Tyler Walker celebrates with fans after equalising in the second half.Mansfield Town v  Grimsby Town.
Tyler Walker celebrates with fans after equalising in the second half.
Mansfield Town v Grimsby Town. Tyler Walker celebrates with fans after equalising in the second half.

And, after scoring five goals in three games over the past eight days few would bet against the young Forest loanee achieving that.

Walker recently went through a spell of seven games without a goal with some fans starting to question his ability.

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But Walker, son of Forest and England legend Des, had the perfect striker’s answer as he roared back to goalscoring form and took his season’s tally to 12 by early November.

“I just want to score as many as I can to help the team – over 20-25 goals at least,” he smiled.

READ THE MATCH REPORTREAD BOSS DAVID FLITCROFT’S VIEWSSTAGS V GRIMSBY ACTION PICTURE GALLERYFANS PICTURE GALLERY“I should have had three or four against Grimsby, definitely, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be.

“I’m just happy about the win mainly and about the five goals in three games. so hopefully that can continue. It’s what I am here to do.”

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Walker praised the service he is getting from his team mates as crosses were put into perfect areas for him to level the game just after the break and then win it eight minutes from time.

“With the ability of Jacob (Mellis) and CJ (Hamilton) everyone knows what they’ve got,” he said.

“They can put the ball in and, as a striker, it’s a dream when you get service like that.

“I couldn’t really miss. They put it in the right areas - I just had to make the run and luckily enough I scored both.

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“The winning goal for a striker is an important goal in any game so I probably enjoyed the second one the most.”

Walker also set up young sub Jordan Graham for a late chance that saw keeper James McKeown pull off yet another superb save in his Grimsby man of the match performance.

“I thought Jordan was in,” said Walker. “I don’t know how the keeper made the save.

“I thought when Jordan came on he was excellent. He’s a fantastic young player so I hope he does really well.”

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The victory put Stags into the top seven play-off places at last, but it was hard work on the night against a determined Grimsby side who went in 1-0 up at the break through Mal Benning’s own goal.

“I was delighted we won it,” said Walker. “We went 1-0 down in the first half and we shouldn’t have really.

“We had a few chances to go one or two-nil up but it was great character from the lads to come back and get the win in the end.

“We knew we hadn’t played well in the first half. The gaffer had words with us and let us know we are better than that.

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“I think second half those changes in formation meant we put more balls in the box and went for it,” he recollected.

“It’s credit to the squad, too. We’ve got a strong side with power on the bench, so when things aren’t quite going our way we know that we can bring lads on that will help impact the game.”