Now, five games without a goal, in a vacuum, isn’t the worst thing in the world. Some players, even attackers, will go much longer without rippling the back of the net without blinking an eye. Jamie Maclaren, though, isn’t like most strikers.
And while Rado Vidošić may have declared his leading man to be a “calm person” anyone that’s exchanged more than two sentences with the 29-year-old on the art of scoring goals in the past would have known just how much he relished his brace in Melbourne City’s 4-1 win over a ten-man Wellington Phoenix on Monday.
Closing on what would have been his longest A-League Men goalscoring drought in almost a decade, Maclaren spared himself any unwanted milestones when he put City ahead in the 34th minute at AAMI Park: finding a yard of space inside the Phoenix penalty area and burying the ball into the bottom corner despite being surrounded by three defenders.
“They were clinical, we weren’t and this is the outcome,” Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay said post-game.
Aided by some haphazard Phoenix defending, he then restored City’s lead and secured his brace three minutes after Steven Ugarkovic’s 49th-minute equaliser when he found space at the back of the six-yard-box and turned an Andrew Nabbout cross inside the far post.
It sparked a dominant three-goal second stanza by the hosts, with Marco Tilio netting a brace of his own to bring his season tally to seven goals and five assists – setting new personal bests for a season as he likely enters the final few weeks of his City career before he heads to Europe.
“Look, he is a very calm person,” Vidošić said of Maclaren. “There are not too many emotions in his performance. He knows what he needs to do and he does it probably better than anyone else in the history of this competition.
“I wouldn’t say as a coach you’re going to doubt how he’s gonna go next game if he hasn’t scored for one to three weeks. But you know that he’s capable of doing it. Especially now that he’s fully fit, it’s going to be hard to stop him”
Fully fit is an important qualifier there, as any reference to Maclaren’s run of goals without a game wouldn’t be done in good faith without referencing the broken toe that he has been forced to play through.
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Sufficiently bothersome enough to cause him to miss the Socceroos’ recent series with Ecuador because of it, City’s raft of injuries across the past few months meant that Maclaren has been forced to play through the pain in the ALM, with Vidošić previously stating that if he’d had the depth available, he would have sat the striker at least once – especially in combination with a groin problem he also developed.
Now, though, it appears that he is on the mend, no doubt much to the Phoenix’s chagrin.
“Yesterday was the first time in many, many, many weeks that he did a shooting session after the training,” explained Vidošić. “He was obviously in a lot of pain with his broken toe, then he had a little bit of problem with his groin. He was not himself, as sharp, as predatorial as he was in the past.
“But yesterday was the first time that he felt really really well and you can see that today. He was outstanding, his movement was excellent, and his contribution in the build-up was very, very good but his finishing was class.
“I hope he’s going to get better and better how the season progresses because now there won’t be any niggling problems that he’s going to have. As a striker, if you score two goals, you can’t wait for Saturday to come.”
In a broader historical context, Maclaren has now moved onto 20 goals for the season, four clear of next-best Jason Cummings as he chases an unprecedented fourth-straight and fifth overall ALM golden boot.
Further, he has now scored 140 goals across his ALM career and is just three goals away from overtaking Besart Berisha to become the greatest goalscorer in ALM history and the second-best in Australian national league history behind only the legendary Damian Mori.
Three, as it turns out, is also the magic number for City for the remainder of the season. Three points, from their remaining three games, and they will secure a record-setting third successive ALM premiership; a capstone achievement for the most dominant side in Australian football across the past half-decade.
“I can’t wait for those three points to be honest,” said Vidošić. “It’s been a long season. We’ve been top of the league I’m not sure from what round, so I think we fully deserve to be where we are.
“We’ve played some really amazing football throughout the year, we dealt with the setbacks maybe better than some other teams. These players, they are serial winners and it’s really easy to be behind the wheel of this team.”
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