Aleksandar Mitrovic's goalscoring record for Fulham this season has been nothing short of jaw-dropping. The big Serb had already hit 20 league goals by matchday 17; a run which included 10 goals in six matches by early November.
With now-promoted Fulham flying high at the top of the Championship for much of the campaign, and Mitrovic in scintillating form, the question of whether he would break Ivan Toney's 31-goal record – set only last season for promoted Brentford – quickly became a question of when.
As it happened, Mitrovic matched Toney's record against Hull on February 12 and then moved clear into the lead against Peterborough later that month. Mitrovic became the greatest single-season goalscorer in Championship history with a staggering 14 games still to play.
But given that record only dates back to 2004 when the league’s branding changed - it seems a slightly arbitrary record. Before the Championship, between 1992 and 2004 when the league was known as Division One, the record is a far more impressive 42 goals scored by Portsmouth’s Guy Whittingham in 1992/93.
He's getting close, though: during Fulham's promotion-sealing win against Preston on April 19, Mitrovic moved up to 40 goals for the season.
But again that 42-goal line in the sand was only drawn because it was the year the Premier League was formed and so for marketing reasons the second tier went from being known as Division Two to Division One.
In order to be the undisputed top goal scorer in the English second tier, the Serbia international would have to notch a further 19 goals in the remaining 14 league games to surpass Middlesbrough’s George Camsell. Camsell scored an astonishing 59 league goals in just 37 league games in the 1926/27 season.
Camsell holds another record that Mitrovic could have his eyes on - on his way to scoring 59 goals the Middlesbrough forward netted nine hat-tricks. A record for a single season. Mitrovic is currently on three, so it seems unlikely he'll topple that one.
So there we have it. While Mitrovic is certainly the greatest single-season scorer in Championship history, he has a long way to go to break the all-time record. A few hat-tricks between now and the end of the season wouldn't hurt.
For a limited time, you can get five copies of FourFourTwo for just £5! The offer ends on May 2, 2022.
‘Arteta, Alonso, Emery, me… none of us were physical players – we needed the understanding of the game. That probably helped us move into management’: Premier League boss reveals reasons for natural career progression
‘England have the players to win the World Cup – it’ll be tough for Thomas Tuchel to do a bad job, with the squad he has at his disposal’ Former Three Lions winger backs new boss after gentle qualifying draw
