Jacques Maghoma has enjoyed a bright start to the season, capping a wonder goal against Leicester in the Capital One Cup with two more superb finishes on Saturday against Oxford. Add to that his goal against AFC Wimbledon and the Congolese striker is enjoying his best goalscoring start to a season in a Brewers shirt. Here the Brewers midfielder discusses moving to live in Burton upon Trent, his goalscoring start to the season, and cheating at dominos with Calvin Zola.
Speaking ahead of this evening’s match Maghoma said, ‘The start to the season has been good, the team has done well and we’ve picked up a few good results. We played well at Rochdale and on Saturday against Oxford and picked up three points in both matches. We’ve been working a lot on our team shape and keeping it tight from the front all the way back to the goalkeeper.
‘We try to keep a solid base and especially away from home we try to counter attack which worked well against Rochdale. We kept them at bay and they didn’t have many chances against us. The work on the training ground has paid off.
‘My first goal this year was against Wimbledon at home and I’m glad to start the season already with four goals. Last year I only got to five and hopefully this year, from now until Christmas, I can get the tally up to at least around eight.’
Maghoma’s 35 yard striker against Leicester City was arguably one of the best goals since the Brewers promotion to the Football League 3 years ago. And as the holder of the 2011/12 goal of the season title, the former Spurs man is confident of retaining his crown. ‘I’ve been practising that kind of shot at the training ground as all the lads will tell you,’ explained Maghoma. ‘So against Leicester I got the opportunity to come inside and I caught it perfectly. It moved a bit and went in the top corner, I was happy with that goal it was my best ever.’
Maghoma took the decision to relocate permanently to Burton upon Trent ahead of this year’s pre-season after previously enduring a two hour commute from London to training at St. George’s Park each day. And Maghoma puts his good early season form down in part to his reduced hours spent behind the wheel. He continued, ‘Especially with recovery after training and before training I recover so much better than I did last season. With the long journey I was travelling up and down on the M1 so moving up has been brilliant for me.’
‘It’s my job going forwards to create and score the goals but it’s the minimum to work hard for the team. As a modern winger you’ve got to be able defend and go forwards so that’s expected of me.
‘I have set a goal target for the whole season but I’m not going to talk about it. The last couple of seasons I’ve come out with it and said I’m going to get to a certain amount. This season I’m going to concentrate on it myself. If I reach that target I’ll be more than happy to let you know what it was.’
Maghoma has been spending his time away from football learning a new game with help from team mates Calvin Zola and Aaron Webster. Dominos is the unlikely game of choice with Webster teaching the pair from the Democratic Republic of Congo the rules. ‘The first couple of games Aaron beat us but after that I won in the first to ten games,’ said Maghoma. ‘Calvin isn’t too bad to be fair, you’d be surprised. He caught on quickly. The first three games we had no clue how to play but after that it was easy, we cheated and spoke in French telling each other what to put down!’