Born in the south east of Ireland, Simon put his life-long love of football to good use when he started a successful independent blog in 2010. That opened up an alternative route to a career in journalism, and having had work published across a number of sites and publications, Simon joined the staff at Spotlight Sports Group in 2018.
Mohamed Salah became the quickest player in the club’s history to reach 50 goals for Liverpool on Wednesday night.
The Egyptian rattled in a brace during Liverpool’s Champions League Group C encounter with Serbian side Red Star Belgrade at Anfield, to smash a record that had stood for almost 80 years.
Playing just his 65th game for Liverpool since moving from Roma in the summer of 2017, Salah grabbed his first of the game on the stroke of half time, storking home Xherdan Shaqiri’s clever through ball with his right foot.
Salah hit his second from the spot five minutes into the second period, after Liverpool were awarded a contentious penalty for a challenge on Sadio Mane. Salah rifled the ball unerringly past Milan Borjan to bring up his half-century of goals in Liverpool red.
Salah scored his 49th and 50th goals just 438 days after he registered his first competitive goal for Liverpool on his Premier League debut at Vicarage Road, in a 3-3 draw with Watford on August 12th 2017.
In total during his debut season, Salah plundered 44 goals in 56 games for Liverpool, including a Golden Boot winning 32-goal Premier League haul.
Salah’s league total set the record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season in 2017/18, putting him in front of Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luiz Suarez who all hit 31 goals during their own sparkling individual campaigns.
So far in 2018/19, Salah has netted just 6 times in 13 appearances, though having scored 4 goals in his last 3 for club and country, the Egyptian looks set to explode into form again.
Reaching the 50-goal mark in just 65 games for Liverpool is an incredible achievement, but whose record did Mohamed Salah smash?
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Albert Stubbins – 50 goals in 77 games between 1946 and 1948
One of Liverpool’s post-war heroes, Alan Stubbins joined the Merseysiders from Newcastle in 1946 for a club record fee of £12,500.
Everton has also been in the running to sign Stubbins, and faced with picking red or blue, the 27-year old decided his future with the toss of a coin.
Lady Luck was with Liverpool and Stubbins made his debut against Bolton Wanderers on 14th September 1946. Like Mohamed Salah, Stubbins marked his first competitive game in red with a late goal in a 3-1 win.
Stubbins scored 28 goals in 44 games in his first season for Liverpool, helping the club to win the League Championship for the first time in 24 years. Stubbins scored 26 times in his second season, knocking in his record breaking 50th goal in Liverpool’s 4-0 win at Derby on the 31st March 1948.
Stubbins went on to score 83 goals in 178 appearances for Liverpool before his retirement in 1953.
Roger Hunt – 50 goals in 79 games between 1959 and 1961
Liverpool legend Roger Hunt scored his first 50 Liverpool goals in the depths of the old Second division. Hunt went on to scored club-record 245 league goals for the Reds during a career at Anfield that spanned 10 years.
Hunt would score 286 goals in total for Liverpool across all competitions, a figure only bested by the iconic Ian Rush, who hit the net 346 times in all for Pool.
Like Albert Stubbins before him and Mohamed Salah after him, Hunt scored on his Liverpool debut, bagging a 64th minute goal in the team’s 2-0 win at Scunthorpe on the 9th of September 1959.
Hunt scored his 50th Liverpool goal against Norwich City in the Reds 2-1 win at Carrow Road on September 2nd 1961. Hunt scored both goals that day and went on to rack up an incredible 42 goals during the rest of his 1961/62 campaign.
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Best of the Rest
Scottish forward George Allan reached the 50-goal mark for Liverpool in just 81 games when he played for the club between 1895 and 1897. The talented attacker would die of tuberculosis just 2 years later.
Liverpool youth team product Jack Parkinson matched Allan’s haul of 50 goals in 81 games for the club between 1903 and 1905, as did Sam Raybould, who played for the club between 1900 and 1907.
Parkinson and Raybould combined to help Liverpool clinch promotion from the Second Division in the 1904/05 season. Liverpool won the First Division title on their first season back up in 1905/06, with Parkinson scoring 7 goals in 8 appearances and Raybould 11 in 25.
In the modern era, Fernando Torres reached 50 goals in just 84 appearance for Liverpool between 2007 and 2009, while Daniel Sturridge bagged 50 goals in his first 87 appearances in red.
Luis Suarez reached his half century in 91 games, ahead of John Aldridge and Michael Owen who needed 92 and 93 games respectively to score 50 goals.
Robbie Fowler reached the 50 goal mark in 94 matches for Liverpool, while Kenny Dalglish needed 99 games to hit the same number.
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