Not all 20-goal-a-season strikers are popular: The ex-Portsmouth, Celtic and Manchester City striker beaten up by his own fans in Southsea

Over the last 24 years, just five different players have managed the feat of breaking the 20-goal barrier in the season.

Bishop joins an elite group consisting of Guy Whittingham, Svetoslav Todorov, Brett Pitman – and Gerry Creaney.

Creaney, a Scotland Under-21 international and club-record capture from Celtic in March 1994 would establish himself as a prolific striker for the Blues.

He was particularly free-scoring in the 1994-95 season, when he plundered 22 goals in 45 games, although missed the final five matches after being attacked on a night out in Southsea.

While on an evening out with Mark Chamberlain to celebrate the Scottish striker’s 25th birthday, he sustained a fractured cheekbone after being set upon in a taxi queue outside the Pyramids.

Creaney would play five more times - scoring on three occasions – before departing in September 1995 as part of the deal which brought Paul Walsh back from Manchester City.

Yet despite an impressive goal return of 32 goals in 60 games, Creaney had long struggled for popularity among some Pompey supporters, as explained by John Durnin in 2020.

In Played Up Pompey Three, Durnin revealed: ‘As we would find out, Gerry liked a drink – and if he had calmed that down he probably could have done better than just a single season in the Premier League with Manchester City.

‘He was a good player, but not as fit as he could have been. I sat next to him in the dressing room and would often say “If you were fitter, imagine how much better you’d be?”. He wouldn't listen, he had come down from Celtic and thought he’d made it. People like that can’t be told.

‘Sometimes I would go out with Gerry – and he was a nightmare when he’d had a drink.

‘Now Gerry, once he’d had a drink, thought he was invincible and upset a lot of people through the way he acted. Here was a single lad who went around with women, which single lads are going to do. However, he started stepping on people’s toes, a few naughty boys. He paid the price.

‘I was once with him in a Southsea pub on a night out and, when I went to the toilet, was approached by a bloke. “Tell your mate to pack in what he is doing,” he said, referring to Gerry.

‘He added: “This is a warning, he’s walking on thin ice, he’s upset a few people”.

‘It turned out Gerry had been carrying on with somebody’s girlfriend. I pulled him aside and explained, but his response was “Ah, he won’t find out”. Again I tried: “They know. These guys will be following this up and before you know it will break your legs. I’m just warning you”. A few weeks later retribution was indeed carried out.

‘It was April 1995 and we were supposed to be going out on the Wednesday night, but Gerry had to shoot up back to Scotland on his day off. Sure enough, he was 10 minutes late for training on Thursday morning, using the excuse that his flight was delayed.

‘Still, it was his 25th birthday and he wanted us to instead go out that night to celebrate. I wouldn’t drink on a Thursday before a game, so declined, yet Mark Chamberlain, who was by then at Brighton but still living at Port Solent, did accompany him.

‘We had Barnsley away on the Saturday – and when the coach collected me from the usual rendezvous point at Oxford services, I was unaware what had gone on. The bus turned up, we were waiting for a club director who normally also got on there and then I noticed: “Where’s Gerry?”.

‘In Queen Alexandra Hospital, I was told, with a fractured cheekbone which required an operation!

‘It turned out Gerry and Chambo had been at a taxi queue outside The Pyramids Centre at 2.30am after going to a nightclub and were set upon, although Chambo took a beating trying to protect him.

‘Apparently, the message was “Just leave him, it’s nothing to do with you”, but it’s your mate isn’t it, you’d probably do the same thing. They told Chambo to walk away, yet he jumped in, sustaining minor facial injuries.

‘Gerry had been putting himself out there and there are things you don’t do, whether you're single or not.’

Creaney would score five goals in 25 matches for Manchester City, primarily featuring as a substitute, during an unsuccessful spell.

There were also loans at Oldham, Ipswich, Burnley and Chesterfield, before joining St Mirren on a free transfer in October 1998.

The striker later turned out for Notts County, Raith, Queen of the South and Clydebank, with his career never hitting the heights it once promised at Pompey.