Mark Hateley hopes striker Alfredo Morelos can join Rangers' 30-goal club this season

That is the barometer by which forwards are judged, the currency by which they repay their manager.

A side that doesn’t have at least one player capable of achieving that aim is unlikely to be able to challenge for the title, never mind go on and win it.

Successful outfits cannot be one man teams, but there is a pressure and expectation on the shoulders of those that lead the line.

Mark Hateley knows all about it, and how to deal with it. His scoring exploits made him an Ibrox legend and a nine-in-a-row hero.

Now, Rangers’ latest main man through the middle has just two games left to join a prestigious group.

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It is almost two months since Alfredo Morelos scored his 29th goal of the campaign and moved to the brink of a scoring landmark that would put him alongside the likes of Derek Johnstone, Ally McCoist and Hateley. He is still waiting, though.

Marco Negri and Kris Boyd have also scored more than 30 times in a season for Rangers and the matches with Celtic and Kilmarnock are an opportunity for Morelos to claim his own piece of Ibrox history.

“It is very special to do it and to get 30 goals,” Hateley, who is now back at Ibrox as a Club Ambassador, said.

“It was hard for me because I was playing with a guy that used to score 40-odd! That is the secret, trying to get a front line that can score 50, 55 goals between them in a season. To get to 30 is an achievement, I only did it once in my career because Alastair was the main go to guy for the goals.

“For Alfredo, every year he has got better and better and better and that is why he will attract a lot of interest from a lot of clubs.

“He is still only 22, but he is moving up a level every season he plays. I am sure that, in time, he will be a top, top goal scoring striker.

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“I try and stay away from the training ground as much as possible so I don’t know him that well.

“There is enough going on up there without any former players putting them off. What goes on there is a professional football side and what goes on here is the business side.”

Hateley spent five hugely successful years at Ibrox first time around, before returning to help Walter Smith’s side get over the line in 1997.

His achievements ensure he is still fondly remembered by supporters to this day, but that 30-goal target was only reached once. That was mainly due to the form of McCoist and their partnership was one of the most profitable Rangers have ever had.

Boss Steven Gerrard has rarely fielded both Morelos and Jermain Defoe together this term. In many ways, the Colombian operates more effectively as a lone Ranger.

“I think it would have been difficult for me to play alongside someone like Alfredo, that would have been a difficult situation, because of the styles,” Hateley said. “When Alastair broke his leg, I played as the one striker and we played like Rangers have played with Alfredo when Scott Arfield supports him.

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“We had Stuart McCall and Gordon Durie making runs and providing support from other areas.

“That was my best season, believe it or not, when I played on my own. There are a lot of things to be said about a lone striker and you get the majority of the efforts on target.

“But Rangers need more than that and the most successful period for this football club was when the two of us were playing together and scoring lots of goals together.

“I hope Alfredo does get the chance to get 30 goals. But we have a striker in Jermain that, at the moment, is taking his chance.

“That then asks a question of the management team and how they go forward, and that is a great thing for the player to be asking.

“You can do nothing more than that than to ask the question of the manager and his team. Jermain is doing that now, and that is a good problem to have.”

The final two games of the season could prove to be Morelos’ last for Rangers. There will be suitors come the summer, and understandably so.

Hateley said: “He has come from South America to Europe to forge a career in the game and has done extremely well for himself.

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“Football is very different in South America to Europe so you have to learn and you have to learn quickly. What is expected in European football is completely different, the referees are completely different in terms of their styles compared to here. He has to learn that, and he will.

“I was at Milan when I was 21, 22 and you have to adjust to a completely new way of playing and living if you are going to survive.

“Hopefully Alfredo will have learned and taken a lot from this season. Whether we will get the benefit of that learning, or someone else does, we will have to wait and see. But he will be a top player because he has got everything about him.

“He has got that edge and his style, where you can knock the ball into him and make things for himself, that teams like. He can play that European style as a one so there will be a lot of interest in him.”