ALL TIME APPEARANCES ETC. - TO END 2005-06 SEASON

THE NAMES BEHIND THE APPEARANCES

Of the 326 players who have played competitive games for The Mighty Burg over the years, we have seen a wide range of ages, abilities and a few real characters.

Dave Baker, who signed for Paul Sleep in 1986 as Coburg were starting to make a name for themselves in IW football, has gone on to make over 400 appearances (so far!), easily the most by any 'Burger. The next highest ‘cap’ winner still playing is Kev Summers, followed by Steve Forster.

There are 36 players in the ‘100 Club’ who have pulled on the ‘twin towered’ shirt a 100 times or more and 5 ‘Onion baggers’ (players that have scored a 100 or more goals). Simon Wratten tops the goal chart with 148, followed by Rich Nasby on 129, Rob Stevens 112, John Cook 104 and Tim Taylor on 102.

There are some legends of IW football that we were very honoured to have on our books. Andy Glaysher played for us in our Div 1 years as he entered the final phase of his illustrious career after playing a good standard on the mainland and Vic Sanders helped us get into the top division, as he sandwiched his Coburg career between stints at East Cowes Vic’s and Cowes.

Or the group of players that Paul Sleep persuaded to leave their Div 1 or Hampshire league clubs to play for us in Div 3 in the late eighties like Rich Baker, Steve Clements, Tony Vine, Mark Wozencroft and Andy Flood.

Or players that had played Hampshire league football for local sides as youngsters, who then brought that experience to Coburg like Rob Steer, John Cook and Danny Goldsmith.

Then there are the players that started at Coburg and went on to play Hampshire league football for Newport, Vic’s or Cowes like Jack Harbidge, John Abadom, Shane Armiger, Steve Quarmby, Matty Kirkpatrick and most recently Levi Parkman and Dan and Jamie Moody.

Two ex-pro’s have pulled on the shirt. Kev Rippon was working on the island as a Prison officer after being released by Billy Bremner at Hull City. After a couple of average games, Sleepy put him on the bench for a cup-tie at Oakfield and we never saw him again after that.

The second ex-pro is a bit of a question mark as even though Lenny Royall mentioned his former club Southampton to all and sundry, we have never seen his name in the Saints club records. His one appearance for us in his latter years during the Eighties was apparently legendary, as he never left the centre circle all game as he barked out instructions to the lesser mortals around him!

We have a few famous names as well in the Coburg records with Ian ‘DJ Mac’ McLoughlin from IW Radio making a solitary appearance in the early Nineties, Glenn Annett, who played Keyboards for Bros in the 80’s and is now in world-renowned Abba tribute group Fabba made 76 appearances for us, while Steve Dines who played 7 games for us went on to represent Great Britain as a triathlete. There is also a J Lumley who made 7 appearances for us in the early days, although our claim that she played for us after playing Purdy in the New Avengers and before Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous is probably stretching it a bit!

Our reputation as a ‘family’ club is emphasised by the number of brothers that have played for us. 20 pairs of brothers; Simon & Dee Holmes, Steve & Andy Lewis, Micky & Tim Westby, Glen & Roy Winnard, Damian & Tim Taylor, Steve & Paul Forster, Ducker & Tony Vine, Jimmy & Vic Sanders, Craig & Danny Goldsmith, Alex & Chris Prendagast, Rich & Dave Baker, Jason & Martin Slade, Alan & Paul Tombleson, Michael & Andy Cox, Johnny & Chris Rice, Paul & Marc Strickland, John & Dave Stillwell, Colin & Simon Tuckwell, Shaun & Shane Hammond, Marcus & Josh Baker.

Add to those 3 Floods in Martyn, Jerry & Andy, 3 Moodys in Dan, Jamie and Kieron and 4 Rice’s, - Scott, Kerry, Leon & Jason.

There are also 4 Father and Son appearance makers. Kev & Tom Rippon, Nigel & James Luter, Ian and Simon Johnson, and Dave & James Vine all represented the Burg - the latter pair are the only father and son to play in the same game, so far. We also thought this had happened with the Hammond's - until Shaun told us him and Shane were brothers!

During Nigel Luters reign he managed to persuade some quality players over from Southampton University, where his son James was studying, and this ‘Foreign Legion’ as we knew them helped us gain and retain our status in Division 1 between 1997 & 2000. The three that made the most impact were Manu Scalera, Jamie Speight and Will Yates. Manu was arguably the most skilful player to ever play for the Burg. He was the son of an Italian diplomat and impressed his fellow students, driving his Ferrari while they rode around on bikes! He made 23 appearances, scoring 5 goals and his football was worthy of a better standard than ours. Jamie was an accomplished defender who made 30 appearances scoring 7 goals. Will played 54 times, scoring 24 as a diminutive striker with a big heart in the squad that gained promotion to Div 1.

No doubt there will be many more stories over the coming years…to be continued.

Details correct as of 9/10/06