OMAR Bogle has gone from ‘most hated to the most loved’ at Newport County AFC – and has pledged there is more to come next season.
The striker will finish as the Exiles’ top scorer for 2022/23 with one game to go, against Crewe in League Two on Monday (kick-off 12.30pm), to add to his 17 goals in all competitions.
Bogle was nominated for the April player of the month award after scoring six times in eight games and has established himself as a talisman.
However, his first season at Rodney Parade has not been plain sailing.
In the winter he was getting jeered by sizeable section of the County support and was copping online flak.
Fast forward to the run-in and Bogle is the man that the fans chant about.
“I felt ‘I’m not going to let that beat me or overcome me’. Regardless of what they said, I was going to keep grafting and working hard,” he remembered.
“I know how good I am, I believe in myself and knew I was going to produce but at the time I was thinking that it wasn’t how things are supposed to be.
“To be honest I can’t even remember the shift – it felt like I was the most hated and then one day the most loved.
“It was probably one of the tougher moments of my career and I learned a lot through that about myself.
“I am grateful for it. The silver lining is that you can go through something like that and see the contrast.”
Bogle now gets his name chanted to the tune of Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag.
“I think supporters need to understand that makes our job so much easier,” he said. “When you know that you’ve got support that is so loud and domineering it fills you with so much confidence.”
The County striker needs a hat-trick on final day against Crewe to hit 20 goals for the campaign but it’s a different milestone – one that exceeds golden boot winner Dom Telford’s tally from last season – that he should have been closing in on.
“For the first time in a few years I've had the full season of consistently playing,” said Bogle, who has had his most prolific season since hitting 22 for Grimsby and Wigan in 2016/17.
“I have scored a decent amount of goals but I am always going to be critical.
“I could have scored 30 and would still have probably been annoyed because there would have been the opportunity to score 45.
“I sat down with Will Evans the other day and said to him that I’d worked it out, I went through all the games and have missed 12 clear cut chances.
“Not just half-chances or ones where you could have done better, ones that I know I have to score and in training I do 9 and a half times out of 10.
“I’ve given myself a lot to build on with a full season and the goals that I have scored. It’s given me a good platform to kick on from.”
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