Over the 1,957 games I’ve seen 71 men have stood between the sticks, from Neil Edwards who appeared in 196 (+1) of those games down to Bernie Hirmer, then the goalkeeping coach, who was summoned to the bench, and then came on for a single appearance. It was in March 2012, after Ian Ormson got his marching orders at Southport. It was an inauspicious County career, lasting 18 minutes, and conceding twice!

We’ve seen some good keepers. Many County fans of even more mature years than myself wax lyrical about Alan Ogley. I only saw him the twice but I will bow to their superior judgement that he was the best. I fondly remember Edwards; Paul Jones, (from the great 1996/97 season), and of course latterly, Ben Hinchliffe. We have been entertained by the antics of Andy Gorton, and notwithstanding his notoriety off the field, he was an excellent custodian.

Over the last decade or so we have seen some excellent keepers brought in on loan. Wayne Hennessey will not only be remembered for the “Nine in a Row”, when he started his senior career not only in a team which won nine games on the bounce, but didn’t concede a single goal. He became an international for the Welsh national team. Fraser Forster played for England; Joe Lewis was on the bench, (but didn’t make an appearance), for the national team; Carl Ikeme played for Nigeria; and John Ruddy also made the England team. It’s highly likely that Dean Henderson, who appeared for the Hatters at the age of 18, will make the national team as well.

Equally, we have seen former internationals in Nick Colgan and a future one in Owain fon Williams. Three years after his last England game Tim Flowers came on loan from Leicester. It was a dispiriting experience for him as his four games saw him conceding 13 times. Disappointingly for me I missed the only game of the four in which we got a point!

We’ve also seen some whose career had been mercifully short. There were single appearances for Brad Jones and Kieran O’Hara which ended up by them conceding four goals.

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KEEPERS OVER THE YEARS

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50 OR MORE APPEARANCES

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	Games	Conceded
Neil Edwards	196 (+1)	200
Ben Hinchliffe	136	141
Ian Ormson	109 (+3)	149
Mike Salmon	109	160
James Spencer	102	173
Carlo Nash	89	112
David Lawson	86	110
Owain fon Williams	84	144
Brian Lloyd	82	129
Lee Jones	73 (+2)	120
Matt Glennon	63	115
Paul Jones	62	59
Danny Hurst	57	79
Andy Gorton	52	56
Mike Rogan	50	52

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AND THE OTHERS: (APPEARANCES (GOALS CONCEDED)

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20 – 49 APPEARANCES

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Conrad Logan 47 : (61);  Eric Nixon 46 : (70);  Dave Redfern 45 : (55);  Chris Marples 38 : (48);  Gary Walker 28 : (44);  Neil Cutler 24+1 : (53);  John Ruddy 23 : (14);  Barry Siddall 23 : (24);  Paul Cooper 23 : (25);  John Keeley 22 : (28);

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10 – 19 APPEARANCES

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Richard O’Donnell 19 : (29);  Ola Tidman 18 : (21);  Ian Ironside 17 : (19);  Andy Dibble 17+2 : (24);  Wayne Hennessey 15 : (16);  Ian Gray 14+2 : (28);  Ian Holbrook 13 : (11);  Tony Williams 13 : (14);  Nick Colgan 13+1 : (23);  Lewis King 12 : (14);  Scott Barrett 10 : (15);

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UNDER 10 APPEARANCES

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Dean Henderson 9 : (11);  Matt Dickins 9+1 : (17);  Carl Ikeme 9 : (22);  Nigel Batch 8 : (11);  Fraser Forster 7 : (5);  Andreas Arestidou 6 : (11);  Paul Hopkinson 5 : (4);  Joe Lewis 5 : (4);  Ian McLoughlin 5 : (7);  Simon Farnworth 5 : (13);  Christian Dibble 4 : (3);  Carl Muggleton 4 : (4);  Andy Cassidy 4 : (8);  Phil Kite 4 : (8);  Sam Turner 4+1 : (10);  Mark Halstead 4 : (12);  Alan Blayney 3 : (3);  Matt Duke 3 : (3);  Pegguy Arphexad 3 : (6);  Boaz Myhill 3 : (6);  Lloyd Rigby 3 : (6);  Tim Flowers 3 : (12);  Alan Kelly 2 : (2);  Steve Crompton 2 : (4);  Alan Ogley 2 : (4);  Paul Gerrard 2 : (6);  Ryan Jones 2 : (6);  Chris Adamson 1 : (1);  Dimeji Willan 1 : (1);  Graham Beighton 1 : (2);  John Connor 1 : (4);  Brad Jones 1 : (4);  Kieran O’Hara 1 : (4);  Wayne Shepherd 1 : (4);  Bernhard Hirmer 0+1 : (2);