UNFORTUNATELY for Tony McMahon, the dubious goals panel don’t judge on assists.

Otherwise the City right back would be raking it in at Valley Parade right now.

McMahon’s pearler of a free-kick opened his own scoring account in style at Northampton on Saturday.

But he has already stamped his authority on the early weeks of the League One campaign by helping others fill their boots.

The stats show that officially McMahon has four assists to his name. Yet he’s also got a pretty strong claim about three others.

“I’ll tell you exactly at the end of the month when my pay slip comes,” he laughed. “It all depends on the chairman and how many he gives me on my assist bonus!

“I don’t know how many I’ve got. My job is to deliver the ball in and if I can get that right, you’ve got lads like Killa (Matt Kilgallon), Romain (Vincelot), Charlie (Wyke) and (Nat) Knight-Percival who’ll get on the end of them.”

For the record, McMahon was credited for his direct role in two of the goals at Peterborough, as well as home against Bristol Rovers and Rotherham.

The questionable claims, where the ball has taken a touch off two players before going in, are over City goals against Walsall, Bristol Rovers again and Blackpool.

But it is fair to say that McMahon has had a hand in exactly half of City’s 16 in the league as he makes the most of having so many willing recipients in the box.

He said: “They are all big targets who want to head the ball. Last year we had Rory (McArdle) who liked to attack it but this time we’ve probably got four or five who want to be on the end of it.

“You look at Romain, who’s brilliant at attacking the ball with his timing. He’s not the biggest but he has got a fantastic leap, which is why he’s scoring so many at the minute.

“If the first part’s right, and they get away from their man, then you’ve always got a chance.

“We do work on loads of different set-pieces. We’ve done round-the-back, we’ve done short, we’ve done neat passing. That’s credit to the gaffer. He’ll look at how the other team line up and if he sees a chink in their armour, we’ll attack it.

“You still get that buzz from setting up a goal. If you’ve put a good ball in and we’ve scored from it, then it feels brilliant.”

McMahon is one of only six current City players who started the goalless semi-final second leg at tonight’s opponents Fleetwood in their last meeting in the play-offs four months ago. But the rebuilt side are already showing encouraging signs of maintaining that good work.

McMahon said: “You couldn’t ask for any more really. It’s a good place to be.”