‘Closer and closer’ - Sheffield Wednesday man eyes club record amid future admission

The long-serving Owl, who came through the club’s academy before breaking into the senior team over a decade ago, went ahead of the great Johnny Fantham in the final game of the 2023/24 season, hitting 434 outings on the day that he scored one of the goals that kept the club in the Championship.

His contract is up in the summer, and he’s made no secret of the fact that he’d love to stick around beyond the current campaign – saying that he’d love to keep climbing up the list of club legends after what has been an eventful few years at Hillsborough.

“100%,” he replied when asked on Radio Sheffield whether he’d like to see out his career at Wednesday. “And looking at that all-time appearance record, it’s coming ever closer and closer. I managed on the last game of the season to go outright eighth, so 112 more appearances and I’ll be right there at the top - that’s something that’s at the back of my mind.

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"If I could break into the top five next season or something along those lines then that’d be my motivation - to try and get as high up on that list as possible.”

It would take another 32 appearances for ‘Palms’ to climb into the top five outright, which would involved overtaking Don Megson (442), Redfern Froggatt (458) and Tommy Crawshaw (465), however Andrew Wilson (on 546) at the top of the pile is going to take some catching for the 32-year-old.