Gabby Looking To Double Figures

Gabby Agbonlahor is looking to build on his big breakthrough season last year saying 'You don't want to go backwards, you want to look forwards. I want to try to continue where I left off. I want to keep playing in the team and scoring goals from the club, and hopefully I can have a similar season this year.'

He says after so many starts the pressure is higher and he is determined not to become a 'one season wonder'.

'All the strikers are working hard and want to play, so it is a case of having to fight for your place by catching the eye in training or in games. If you are not in the team, and three of the five of us won't be, then you have to work even harder.'

He also says he'll play anywhere having been played on the left and right wings as well as up front. 'As long as you are in the team, that's all you want.'

With ten goals last term, he is looking to repeat the feet and add to the tally. 'You can't really set yourself big targets without knowing how the season will pan out, but hopefully I will be playing games and scoring goals.'

Gabby scored against Everton on his debut at Goodison park 18 months ago. The turbo charged striker explained on avfc.com 'When I made my debut at Everton. I wasn't starting because the manager wanted me to, I was in there because of a lack of players. There was no one else who could play. But I think I started on merit at the beginning of last season and played every game through merit. There were players who were dropped and I was playing in preference to them.'

Meanwhile Martin O'Neill is confident that Gabby is developing:

'He's definitely a much better player than 12 months ago. Like anything else, he can improve on his finishing, but couldn't we all. He must set himself goalscoring targets for the season and work hard to reach those targets. There's always the talk of 'one-season wonder' and things like that. But Gabby is continuing to develop and he's not the sort of player to sit back and think he's made it.'

In our recent poll asking which striker was most likely to get close to 20 goals this season (Click Here) , Gabby got 7% behind Luke Moore and John Carew.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.

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