It’s always nice when a player reaches a milestone in terms of appearances.
I felt gutted, for instance, when Sean Roughan finished on 149. A nice round 150 would assure a certain status, but 149? It just falls short.
I find it hard for a player not to be classed as a club legend if they hit the 200 mark, and with Ben House’s new deal, we now have three players, I think, who could reach that number.
Who are they? They’re listed below, alongside the three I suspect will reach the magic 100 mark this campaign, with two likely before Christmas.
Appearances include League, EFL Cup, EFL Trophy and FA Cup.
The 200 Club
Ben House – 128 appearances
Ben House is now contracted to the club until the summer of 2028, at least. He’s currently made 128 appearances, having had some time out injured during his spell here.
During his time here, he averages 37 appearances per season across all competitions, 44, 22 and 44. If he stays injury-free, he’s good for at least 40, and he’s currently on 12 for this campaign.
If he were to stay until 2028, that is another three seasons, less this campaign. Working on averages, that’s 99 appearances (discounting the 12 already made this season).
If he were to trigger the extension that is hinted at in the deal, we’re talking 136 extra appearances, a total of 264. That would put him between Peter Gain, Peter Grotier and John Ward (263) and George Shipley (274). Big names.
Adam Jackson – 175 appearances
No secret here, I’m a Jacko fan. Like Ben House, he’s been written off before, but he is one of only two senior members of the squad left over from the 2020/21 play-off final squad (Lewis Montsma and Conor McGrandles remain, the latter having left and come back).
He averages 33 appearances per season, with a high of 37 (2023/24) and a low of 26 (2021/22). He recently penned a new deal until the end of 2027 (with an option), so theoretically, he should add 55 (33 per season, less the 11 he’s made this campaign).
That would push him through the 200 barrier towards the end of this season, beginning of next, with a total of 230. If he stayed for the extension and again averaged 33, we’d be talking 266 appearances.
Once again, that would be between John Ward and George Shipley, but in terms of defenders, he’d fall between George Peden (252) and Jim Grummett Jr (279).
Conor McGrandles – 155 appearances
This could be tight. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear we’ve secured a new deal for McGrandles over the coming weeks, and if we do, then he’ll comfortably break the 200 barrier. If not, he could just fall short.
Currently, he’s on 155 appearances, and we have 37 remaining (35 in the league, one FA Cup, one EFL Trophy). Assuming he was ever-present for the league and cup, that would be 192 – eight short of the 200. We’d need a hell of a cup run in the FA Cup and EFL Trophy to make up those eight!
If he gets a new deal, he breaks the 200 barrier, he joins the likes of Terry Fleming, David Puttnam and modern legend Harry Anderson.
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