KANE CLOSING FAST ON SHEARER GOAL RECORD

HARRY KANE is in hot pursuit of two personal targets to emphasise his prolific year in front of goal. The Tottenham and England striker is only four short of half a century of goals for club and country in 2017 and trails Alan Shearer’s record of 36 Premier League goals in a calendar year by seven. Kane (right) has 29 league goals so far this year despite losing a month to injury in the spring and Shearer’s total, set with Blackburn in 1995, is within reach as Spurs start a sequence of nine league games in 37 days against West Brom at Wembley tomorrow. ‘I missed a few games in that time with injury,’ said Kane, who scored his first goal for a month at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday. ‘I went two or three games without scoring and the fact people mention it shows the high standards I have set myself. That’s fine with me. I want to score in every game.’ What could help Kane is that Spurs’ nine Premier League games before the end of December include West Ham, Stoke and Watford, three of the five topflight teams with the worst defensive records. But Mauricio Pochettino has vowed to rotate his squad and Kane’s chances of breaking more records will depend on how much he plays. And Pochettino will not take risks with his star striker.