Blackburn Rovers striker: I'll beat my goals target

10:28am Tuesday 20th May 2008

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BLACKBURN Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz is confident he can become even more deadly in front of goal next season.

The Paraguayan hitman, a bargain £3.8 million capture from Bayern Munich last summer, has just completed a remarkable debut season in English football, scoring 19 goals in the Premier League to become the club's most prolific top-flight scorer since the legendary Alan Shearer.

But, while the 26-year-old freely admits he has surpassed even his own expectations during the last 10 months, he still plans to raise the bar even higher next term.

The South American, who found the net a total of 23 times in all competitions, said: "In the sense that this was my first season, I have to be happy.

"I'm very pleased with how things went, and I hope I can get more goals next year.

"I think this year was a wonderful year for me. I expected to score between 12 and 15 goals and I ended up with 23, so I expect to score at least 15 again next year, whatever happens. But to do better than that is always welcome.

"If I can score that many this season, I think I can repeat it next year. But I know this a very hard league, and it depends also on the team's performance.

"I expect the same (standard), if not better, from the team next season, and if that happens then the goals will come."

Santa Cruz appeared to be the man with the Midas touch at times last season, particularly during the run-in, when he scored eight goals in his last nine appearances.

However, much to his own frustration, that golden touch deserted him on the final day at St Andrew's, the striker missing an easy header by his own high standards which would have put Rovers 2-1 up, and in commanding position, in their must-win game with Birmingham.

Lamenting that miss - and Rovers' subsequent defeat in the Midlands, which effectively dashed their hopes of qualifying for Europe - Santa Cruz, who was linked with a summer move to Arsenal in one of the nationals, said: "Normally those headers go in, but you have those days, and I think the whole team didn't perform as well as we expected we would.

"We were very disappointed about that game but we need to keep looking forward, and I think that next season we can do even better."