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THEY STARTED OVER 200 GAMES (5)

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It’s more than fair to say that the five names below are written in County folklore, and four of them were fixtures in the Annus Mirabilis, 1996/97. We played 67 games in total that season. I was fortunate enough to miss only three, (the away games at Wycombe; Brentford and Bournemouth out of interest). That season Gannon, (55 + 3), Flynn, (66), Connelly (65 + 1); and Todd, (58 + 2) were key elements of the team. Chris Beaumont was integral to the team that gained promotion in 1991, and was a mainstay. Having played well over 300 games for the Hatters he moved on to Chesterfield after the 1995/96 season, He might have missed out on County’s greatest season, but played an integral role in the Spireites run to the FA Cup semi-final in 1996/97, and ended up playing another 158 league appearances after leaving the Hatters.

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Jim Gannon; Mike Flynn; Sean Connelly & Chris Beaumont

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Jim Gannon	388	36	57
Mike Flynn	326	1	13
Sean Connelly	290	9	6
Chris Beaumont	263	20	43
Lee Todd	262	12	4

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KEY PLAYERS: 100 – 199 STARTS (10)

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Lee Todd; Neil Edwards; David Frain & Alun Armstrong

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Four more of that Chesterfield promotion winning game side played in over 100 games that I saw in the 1990’s. Alun Armstrong; Brett Angell; Tony Dinning and Tom Bennett. All of these are mentioned throughout this site as are David Frain and Peter Ward, the midfield duo who were vital to the success of Bergara’s teams.

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Brett Angell; Peter Ward; Tony Dinning & Tom Bennett

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Neil Edwards	196	1	0
David Frain	190	9	12
Alun Armstrong	180	6	58
Kevin Francis	171	4	102
Brett Angell	163	9	69
Peter Ward	158	2	17
Tony Dinning	140	45	25
Tom Bennett	126	6	6
Bill Williams	113	2	5
Tony Barras	106	5	4

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50 – 99 STARTS (19)

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With between 50 and 99 starts these players gave us getting on for two full seasons each, and there’s a fair few names here that are fondly remembered. Most County fans of that era will point to Andy Preece; Chris Marsden and Keiron Durkan, and quite rightly so. Marsden, (51 + 2 appearances) and Durkan, (53 +7), were mainstays of the 1996/97 team. Durkan sadly passed away in early 2018. The midfield partnership of Marsden and Tom Bennett was, to my eyes, one of the great joys in my years following the Hatters. Preece of course is widely remembered for the match winner against QPR in 1994 – take another look here – but he contributed so much, and his partnership with Kevin Francis was pivotal in the first half of the decade.

Making 96 starts in games I witnessed was Martin McIntosh. Signed by Megson from Hamilton for a reported £80,000 his partnership with Mike Flynn provided County with some real steel at the back. I note that I saw Andy Thorpe make 94 starts in the early 1990’s. He had played in some of the games I saw in the 70’s and in some ways it was fitting that his last appearance in a County shirt was at Wembley when he came on as a sub in the Autoglass final against Stoke in 1992.

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Martin McIntosh; Andy Preece; Andy Thorpe; Kevin Cooper & Chris Marsden

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Martin McIntosh	96	2	4
Andy Preece	94	11	48
Andy Thorpe	94	4	0
Kevin Cooper	93	25	16
David Miller	81	11	1
Chris Marsden	81	2	4
Colin Woodthorpe	77	14	6
Alan Finley	72	3	5
Keiron Durkan	67	15	7
Michael Wallace	67	12	6
Carlo Nash	66	0	0
Paul R Williams	63	7	3
Paul Jones	62	0	0
Darren Knowles	61	13	0
Jeff Eckhardt	61	8	10
Ian Moore	59	5	8
John Jeffers	53	14	6
Malcolm Brown	52	0	2
Paul Ware	51	14	6

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25 – 49 STARTS (17)

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These players played the equivalent of a season or less. We can never forget Paul Cook’s screamer against City; Ian Helliwell’s equaliser at Goodison; Kilner’s screamer against Torquay or the goal scoring contributions of Paul A Williams and Neil Matthews. If I had to pick a single goal from the list below it would be the winner that Andy Mutch struck against Burnley in April 1997. Coming with but minutes of the game left, and the desperate search for three points as the promotion hunt reached its height the reaction from the County fans was ecstatic, but not from the Bunley fans on the Railway End. Check it out here!!

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Paul Cook	49	2	3
Matt Bound	46	0	6
Eric Nixon	46	0	0
Chris Byrne	44	8	12
Dave Redfern	43	0	0
Jim Carstairs	40	2	2
Steve Bullock	39	4	0
Ian Helliwell	39	2	15
Mark Payne	38	7	11
Damon Searle	38	7	0
Martyn Chalk	36	19	8
Andy Kilner	35	9	15
Paul A Williams	35	9	16
Andy Mutch	33	43	17
Luis Cavaco	32	12	7
Darren Ryan	31	6	7
Neil Matthews	26	17	13

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10 – 24 STARTS (26)

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The late 1990’s saw the full debut of Aaron Wilbraham, (in a game at Maine Road, as it turns out, in April 1998). He had come on as sub a week previously against Crewe, but on his first start it took him only a few minutes to get on the scoresheet. It’s hard to think that as I write this, (in April 2020), that he has just finished his 24th season as a pro footballer. He’s now made well over 600 appearances in the League.

I pick another unusual name out of the players below. Paul Wheeler made a decent contribution during the first Wembley season, and he scored one of my favourite ever County goals. It was at Crewe in an Autoglass game in 1992. I haven’t been able to uncover a video of it but the skill Wheeler showed to control the ball and lift it into the goal was tremendous. there have been far more vital, and maybe spectacular goals over the years, but the skill level of that one has always stuck with me.

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Paul Cooper	23	0	0
Shane Nicholson	23	0	1
Aaron Wilbraham	22	25	3
John Keeley	22	0	0
David Smith	20	1	2
Rob Matthews	19	4	2
Ian McInerney	19	4	4
Michael Oliver	17	5	1
Ian Ironside	17	0	0
Paul Wheeler	16	15	6
Waynne Phillips	15	7	0
Laurent D’Jaffo	15	1	8
Derek McInnes	15	0	0
Tony Ellis	14	3	6
Paul B Jones	14	0	0
David Logan	14	0	3
Martin James	13	19	0
Marc Lloyd-Williams	12	9	1
John Muir	11	3	3
Steven Grant	10	18	4
Graham Branch	10	4	2
Dean Emerson	10	3	1
Mark Lillis	10	3	2
Keith Edwards	10	1	4
Ian Gray	10	1	0
Scott Barrett	10	0	0

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2 – 9 STARTS (39)

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There can only be a single name that can picked out of this list and that is Ken Charlery. Our nemesis at Wembley in the Play-Off final in 1992 he joined the Hatters towards the end of the 1996/97 season as we were pushing for promotion. A proven goalscorer throughout the years at a legion of Clubs he failed to hit the target for us in his short time at EP. But, and it’s a huge but, those who were at Slatergate the night we secured promotion will always remember the excrutiating 6 minutes of added time. And in those six minutes Charlery was magnificent holding the ball around the corner flag, shielding it from the Spireites players and ensuring that it didn’t go up to the far end. It was vital. So a brief career but an important role….

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Keith Alexander	9	3	0
Kent Bergersen	9	3	0
Matt Dickins	9	1	0
Ken Charlery	8	2	0
Paul Masefield	8	0	0
Peter Duffield	7	2	4
Chris Downes	7	0	0
Ronnie Wallwork	7	0	0
Alan Bailey	6	6	2
Richard Landon	6	6	4
Brian McCord	6	4	1
Chris Allen	6	3	0
Ben Thornley	6	2	0
Paul Hughes	6	0	0
Nicholas Brookman	5	3	0
Gordon Cowans	5	2	0
Paul Robertson	5	1	0
Keith Briggs	5	0	2
Simon Travis	4	20	2
Deiniol Graham	4	6	1
Lee Richardson	4	2	0
Phil Kite	4	0	0
Gary Monk	4	0	0
Carl Muggleton	4	0	0
Adie Mike	3	6	0
Peter Davenport	3	3	1
Gary Leonard	3	2	0
Kevin Slinn	3	2	1
Kevin Gibbens	3	1	0
John Paskin	3	1	1
Darren Hope	3	0	0
Martin Nash	2	13	1
John Cooke	2	2	0
Bruce Murray	2	1	0
Paul Alsaker	2	0	0
Karim Fradin	2	0	0
Jason Lee	2	0	0
Eddie McGoldrick	2	0	0
Barry Siddall	2	0	0

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THEY MADE BUT THE SINGLE START (10)

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Bergara’s selection for the first play off game on Black Sunday at Chesterfield was head scratching. He included Gary Leonard, (4 starts all season), and Gary Brabin, who had played just the once at Exeter a month previously, was on the bench. Players like Keith Edwards and Mark Payne were left out. After he 2nd leg which Brabin started he had one more sub appearance for County and that was that. He went onto have a reasonable career at a variety of Clubs but is probably better known for being a serial Conference manager at Southport; Luton, Cambridge and Tranmere. There were all sorts of whispers about him taking the role at County before Gannon’s 3rd coming but that’s all they were … whispers and rumours propagated on various message boards.

I saw Dessie Byrne play just the one game, (against Bradford in January 1999). He then got another at Norwich a month later. He looked useful but departed the Club in the most of bizarre circumstances. I wrote about this in far greater detail in Survival of the Fattest 5 – you can read it here.

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Manuel Kiko	1	4	0
Vasilios Kalogeracos	1	3	0
Gary Brabin	1	2	0
Mark Loram	1	2	0
Chris Moore	1	1	0
Kevin Brock	1	0	0
Richard Brown	1	0	0
Des Byrne	1	0	0
Carl Holmes	1	0	0
Lee Marshall	1	0	0

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SUBSTITUTE APPEARANCES ONLY (13)

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	Games	Sub	Goals
Brian Croft	0	3	0
Jon Daly	0	3	0
Joel Cantona	0	2	0
Peter Maguire	0	2	0
Gavin Allen	0	1	0
Geoff Aunger	0	1	0
Michael Cecere	0	1	0
Stuart Fitzsimmons	0	1	0
Lea Jones	0	1	0
Sean Mannion	0	1	0
James Quinn	0	1	0
David Ritchie	0	1	0
Roy Young	0	1	0