FORMER Saints striker Billy Sharp is closing in on a major milestone.

The 31-year has been a proven marksman throughout his career and is heading for his second League 1 Golden Boot.

The Sheffield United forward last night took his seasonal third tier tally to 26 with a brace as the table-topping Blades won 3-2 at Oxford United.

With Sharp's former club Scunthorpe losing 2-1 at Charlton, Sharp and co now have an 11-point lead over the third-placed Iron. They are eight points ahead of second placed Fleetwood.

Sharp now has 198 career domestic goals to his name - 187 of which have come in the league.

He first won the League 1 Golden Boot a decade ago, firing 30 goals as Nigel Adkins' Scunthorpe won the title.

Adkins splashed out £1.7m to bring Sharp to St Mary's towards the end of the January 2012 transfer window.

The player had already proved himself in the second tier with Doncaster, and struck nine times in 17 appearances as Saints clinched a second successive promotion.

It came as a surprise, therefore, that Sharp never got a chance to prove himself in the Premier League.

He made two late sub appearances in Saints' first two games of 2012/13 - at Manchester City and at home to Wigan - but never played in the league again after that.

Following a goal in a League Cup win at Stevenage in August 2012, he was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest.

Further loan spells followed at Reading and Doncaster in 2013/14 before Sharp joined Leeds for a nominal sum in the summer of 2014.

Adkins brought him back to Sheffield United - the club where he had begun his career - shortly after taking over as Blades boss in June 2015.

Sharp struck 21 times in his first season at Bramall Lane, but the club's failure to reach the play-offs saw Adkins sacked.

Under Chris Wilder, though, Sharp is heading back to the Championship - and is now just two goals away from his career double century.