Oakleigh Cannons ace Alex Salmon claims maiden NPL Victoria golden boot
After twice finishing runner-up, Oakleigh Cannons striker Alex Salmon stormed home to win his first NPL Victoria golden boot in a tie with Harrison Sawyer.
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A blistering finish to the season secured Alex Salmon his first NPL Victoria Golden Boot.
The Oakleigh Cannons striker hit the back of the net five times in the final three games, including a brace in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Hume City, to finish with 16 goals.
The tally sees him share the award with South Melbourne captain Harrison Sawyer.
It’s the Englishman’s third goalscoring title in Australia having previously won back-to-back NPL WA golden boots with Inglewood.
The prolific forward scored in 12 of his in 21 NPL appearances this season, while he also added four goals in the Australia Cup.
Salmon said chasing down Sawyer had been good motivation.
“It’s always nice to win individual awards but it’s the team ones tend to mean more and the ones you remember,” Salmon said.
“I knew I was five behind with three to play.
“I had a little look and seeing I wasn’t too far behind I knew had to get a few goal and it was nice to do so and get the wins as well.”
Salmon, 30, has never been far off the top of the league goalscoring charts since arriving in Victoria with Green Gully in 2019.
He netted 21 times in 2019 to finish one goal behind Liam Boland in 2019, after having two goals taken off him, and second again in 2023 with 13 goals.
Moving to Oakleigh last season, he was a key player in the club’s history-making Dockerty Cup victory, scoring in the semi-final and final.
The Cannons lost this year’s final on penalties but are eyeing a second NPL championship in three years and are through to the Australia Cup Round of 16.
“Winning trophies and being up there for the golden boot is the reason I joined Oakleigh,” Salmon said.
“We obviously won the Dockerty, which the club had never done before, and we were unlucky this year – losing on pens.
“We’re still in every other competition, that’s why I joined the club, all the boys want to win.
“We play Heidelberg in the cup so that’s a good opportunity to go and get ourselves in the next round and then the finals against Dandy City, we got into that with confidence.”
Salmon has produced critical goals against four of Oakleigh’s championship rivals, scoring three times against Hume City and once against Avondale, Heidelberg United and Dandenong City.
He put his strong goalscoring form down to a strong connection with his teammates, particularly captain Joe Guest.
The pair both come from the north-west England, near Liverpool.
“Guesty is always setting me up to be honest,” Salmon said.
“I have a very good relationship with him off the pitch and on it.
“He lives about 30 or 40 minutes away back at home, he’s from Warrington and I’m from West Kirby.
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“All the lads have chipped in, I’m always on them to get balls into the box or play it forward.
“It’s nice to put a few chances away because the year before it wasn’t the case, I was getting a bit of stick off the boys.”
Oakleigh Cannons host Dandenong City in a NPL elimination final on Saturday at Jack Edwards Reserve.
The club will then back up four days later in the Australia Cup tie against Heidelberg United at the Home of the Matildas.
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