One of the biggest injustices in football lies with the striker who does nothing for 89 minutes before popping up to score the winner. Instantly it does not matter if they had contributed virtually nothing in the rest of the game, it will be the number nine who gets his name chanted at the end.

Fans love a goalscorer like no other kind of player because of the influence they can have over results. Always have, always will. Which makes Gillingham fans’ relationship with Simeon Jackson rather curious.

As someone who had comfortably outscored his team-mates for the last two years, the Canada international should in theory have been the Priestfield faithful’s favourite son. Jackson netted twice as many goals as anyone else in the squad last season and almost three times as many in the campaign before – including the only goal in the play-off final at Wembley.

And yet his sale to Norwich City this week has largely been met on the message boards with acceptance. Few seem to have mourned his departure and most are just concerned about how the money is spent.

Alan Liptrott, co-editor of GillsConnect.com, summed up the fans’ prevailing assessment of Jackson: “I think there were certain things outside the box that possibly he lacked and his first touch wasn’t that good at times. His record speaks for itself but at the end of the day he didn’t win over the fans as much as he should have done. He got us promoted but last season possibly wasn’t one of his best.”

The ambivalence of supporters towards Jackson used to perplex Mark Stimson, who signed the striker from Rushden & Diamonds on deadline day in January 2008. Repeatedly he urged supporters to get behind “the little man”, but the terraces struggled to warm to him.

With a proportion of supporters never converting to Stimson himself, perhaps the manager’s backing was part of the problem. Off the pitch Jackson could also have done more to ingratiate himself; he clearly disliked having anything to do with the media and gave little away in interviews.

But despite all this there is no getting away from his record. Coming out of non-league and into a squad split by factions he struggled under the pressure to score the goals to keep the Gills up in his first half season. It was only in the following campaign when Jackson looked settled that he began to show his true colours and without his 20 league goals promotion would have been inconceivable.

The improvement on the pitch was no coincidence. Any visitor to Gillingham’s training ground would more often than not have seen Jackson working on his shooting long after the rest of the squad had called it a day. It is that willingness to improve which has got him to Norwich.

Still there were doubters at the start of last season about whether he could cut it in League One. An explosive start of 11 goals in the first 14 games provided an emphatic response. The frustration came in adding only another seven to his tally for the rest of the season, mirroring the rest of the team’s gradual decline after a good start.

Unfortunately his final appearance will be remembered for blasting a volley over from close range at Wycombe. It would have levelled the scores, but considering the way Gillingham played that day there is no certainty they would have gone on to claim a point – and therefore stayed up – if he had scored.

The decision to sell probably came at the right time for both parties, with Jackson’s contract due to expire in less than 12 months. But it will only be a good decision if the fee is wisely invested in a replacement to bolster a forward line which looks desperately short of goals.

Maybe it will only be once he has gone that fans will appreciate what Jackson brought to the side. They will have an early chance to see it first hand, with Norwich hosting Gillingham in the Carling Cup next month.