I actually thought about it when I realised that Micky Gooding had appeared in well over 300 league games for us, and I wondered just how high he figured in our all time list. My gut reaction was that he was probably in the top 20, and may have made it into the top 10, well now all can be revealed. Including substitute appearances, he's actually 11^th - an amazing record considering he joined us after he'd turned 30 - so well done Mick, and a belated "so long and thanks for all the fish".

I've reproduced the list below of all Loyal Royals who have made over 200 apps for us, and they number 39, which ain't bad I suppose. I don't claim this to be a definitive list by the way. Checking through some of the Rothmans shows that their stattos can't count, and I'm in the process of scouring various other sources to verify the figures, but they won't be too far out (man).

What I find a bit scary is that I have seen 26 of the 39 in league action - aaargh!

There are some famous names missing who didn't make it to 200, Robin Friday, (God how I would have loved him to have played for us for 500 games!), Douggie Webb, (who was with the club for 11 years as a player and only made it to 179), Tony Wagstaff, (the Dariusz of his day?), Ritchie Bowman, Tommy Tait pre-war, etc etc. There are one or two that did surprise me, no offence Jerry Williams, but they obviously all got there on merit!

I'm finishing off the full list at the moment, and will do future articles on things like "single appearance saddos", (one more than I made so who am I to take the p*ss!), "Top 10 subs", "Highest goalscorers", (not that many from this day and age BTW!), and others that I haven't thought of yet! If anyone's got any ideas along similar lines, just drop me an "e".

Final point, if you spot any glaring errors or corrections, please let me know.

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