The top 10 best EFL League One strikers in 2026 | OneFootball

Football League World looks at who has stolen the show up front in the infancy of 2026

We're nearly two months into 2026, and in League One, there have been plenty of standout performers at the top end of the pitch, looking to fire their respective clubs to their end-of-season goals.

The majority of clubs in the third tier have played at least 10 games over the past couple of months, and with that, there's been a good sample size to see who the best strikers in the division have been since the turn of the year.

It's a difficult list to construct — the majority of those who impressed in the opening half of the campaign have continued their goalscoring prowess, but there have been others who have joined the fray too.

Putting it plainly, there'll be more than just one player netting over 20 goals in the third tier come the end of the season, unlike last year.

So, Football League World has delved into who has been the best of the best in 2026 so far in the League One striker department.

10 ? ? Dom Ballard

Dom Ballard began 2026 like a house on fire, netting in the opening three games of the calendar year, including opening the scoring against the league leaders, Cardiff City and bagging his second hat trick of the season in a 3-1 win against Reading.

Unfortunately, though, that 3-1 win preceded a five-game winless run that saw Leyton Orient drop into the bottom four, scoring just two goals as a team.

The 20-year-old returned to the scoresheet in a must-win game against Northampton Town, and over 2026, he's maintained his place near the top of the scorers chart in the division.

For a young forward, he has all the potential in the world, and if Leyton Orient are to stay up, he'll be credited the most with being the catalyst for it.

9 ? ? Sam Dalby

Mason Burstow was arguably the striker of the first few months of the campaign, and it didn't look like fellow summer arrival Sam Dalby was going to get a look-in at all.

However, Burstow's form has taken a nose-dive as the season has gone on, and in 2026, the former Wrexham frontman has established himself as the main man up top at Bolton Wanderers.

10 of his 13 starts in League One have come since the turn of the year, and he's found the back of the net six times in 2026 as well, including two vital braces to deliver three points against Burton Albion and Barnsley.

The 26-year-old managed 14 goals last season while at Dundee United, and if he carries on in this vein, he'll beat that tally with ease.

8 ? ? Jake Beesley

There arguably isn't a more important player relative to the club they play at in League One this season than Jake Beesley.

Everything good that Burton does going forward goes through him, and the target man is always on hand to score important goals for the Brewers, be that against top sides such as Cardiff, Lincoln and Huddersfield, or both in a 2-2 draw with bottom club Port Vale.

Those are the five he's contributed to so far in 2026, but his presence opens up opportunities and space for his teammates, too, helping them onto the scoresheet as well.

7 ? ? Marcus Browne

Marcus Browne has been revitalised as a striker at AFC Wimbledon in 2026, after an opening half of the campaign where he didn't excite on the wing.

Since the turn of the year, the 28-year-old has netted seven times in 10 games, including a hat trick in a 3-2 win over Reading, and his goals have helped Johnnie Jackson's side slow their slide down the table, after a three-month period with just one win in 14 between October and January.

Browne has always had the quality, but now, playing off of some good facilitators next to him in Omar Bugiel and Jordan Stevens, that is starting to show with goals.

6 ? ? Joe Taylor

Everyone knows the quality that Joe Taylor possesses at the top end of the pitch, and after a frustrating 2025 at Huddersfield, the 23-year-old has finally been able to showcase it on loan at Wigan Athletic.

The former Luton Town frontman, who netted 10 in 19 in the third tier during the second half of the campaign with Lincoln in 2023/24, is well on his way to hitting those numbers again, scoring six in his opening eight league games at the Brick Community Stadium.

Like with Ballard and Beesley earlier in the list, if the Tics are to maintain their League One status come May, his goals will play a key part in ensuring that happens.

5 ? ? Jayden Wareham

From Gary Caldwell's new side to his old one, Jayden Wareham has had a breakout year himself, as the 22-year-old threatens to challenge at the top of the scoring ranks in League One, especially after a recent eight-minute hat-trick against Peterborough United.

Exeter City has lost just once in 2026, and Wareham has netted seven times in the calendar year to help with that.

The Grecians will be hoping to just ride out this season after Caldwell was poached by divisional rivals Wigan, as many felt that the Scottish boss was the main reason that the Grecians were avoiding relegation so successfully.

They'll need all hands on deck to allow that to happen, and Wareham's goals won't go amiss.

4 ? ? Kyle Wootton

Stockport County's Kyle Wootton is the new top scorer in League One after his stoppage-time brace against Wigan, which continued his best scoring season during his time at Edgeley Park.

The 29-year-old has always been one of the premier target men in the third tier, but this year, with no Tanto Oloafe or Louie Barry by his side (albeit with both of them re-joining the club on loan in January), Wootton has had to take the scoring mantle on himself, and he's more than succeeded.

Another frontman with seven goals in the opening 10 games of the calendar year, the golden boot is his to lose, and you'd back the Hatters' frontman, with the service he gets, to maintain that top spot come the end of the season.

3 ? ? David McGoldrick

David McGoldrick being the third-best striker in League One in 2026 isn't a sentence that should make sense, but as has been the case with the 38-year-old over the past few years, age is very much just a number, and that goalscoring knack never leaves you.

It was looking all doom and gloom at Barnsley when talisman Davis Keillor-Dunn departed on deadline day for Wrexham, but in his absence, and throughout January, too, McGoldrick has been exceptional.

Seven goals in nine games, and the only time the Tykes have failed to score since the turn of the year came in a game he wasn't playing in away at Cardiff.

The 38-year-old is ageing like a fine wine, and another double-digit scoring campaign seems to be on the menu for the Irishman.

2 ? ? Bim Pepple

Despite propping up the League One table in November, Plymouth Argyle are being tipped as outsiders for the play-offs, mainly due to the surprise emergence of Bim Pepple as a goalscoring threat alongside fellow marksman Lorent Tolaj.

The 23-year-old was only really brought in as a prospect bench option in the summer, having shown promise in the National League and League Two last season, but so far in 2026, the Canadian is showing that he's one for the present.

Like Dalby, 10 of his 13 league starts have come in 2026, and he's netted seven times across those games, as the Pilgrims have shown frightening intensity at the top end of the pitch, scoring in threes, fours and fives multiples times already this calendar year.

Tom Cleverley's side are a dark horse for the run-in, and Pepple is clearly one of the reasons why.

1 ? ? Jack Marriott

There's a clear argument to be made that Jack Marriott is the signing of the season in League One. 16 goals in 23 games across the campaign for Reading is an incredible return, and nine of those have come in just 11 games in 2026.

Another hat-trick scorer, this time in a 3-2 win over Wycombe Wanderers, which is, remarkably, the only time he's netted a brace this season, too.

Therefore, it's not just been nine goals in 11 games; it's been seven games where Marriott has found the back of the net, compared to four where he has not, which are lethal numbers, and the best scoring season the 31-year-old has had since the 2017/18 campaign.

That year, he won the Golden Boot in his only season with Peterborough, and he will easily challenge for that title once again come the end of the current campaign.