CONSECUTIVE PLAYERS APPEARANCES

With squad rotation now in place, it's highly unlikely players will play every game of a season. Back in the 60's and 70's however, it was the norm for clubs to have much smaller squads and for players to play twice as many games per season as they do now.

As for consecutive appearances, our leading player was Bob McKinlay. Starting on April 25 1959 he played in all 294 games for the next 6 years. He missed the next game (in the League against Aston Villa on Oct 23, 1965) and another in the FA Cup against Hull on Feb 12 1966, but started the following game on Feb 19th to begin another 140 game streak, which also appears on this list! If he had played in those 2 League and Cup games, he would have played in 451 consecutive games over an almost 10-year span.

These are the players who played more than 100 consecutive competitive games:

Pos Game Count Player Start Date End Date
1294Bob McKinlayApr 25, 1959Oct 16, 1965
2239John RobertsonDec 27, 1976Nov 29, 1980
3171Mark CrossleyNov 21, 1993Feb 22, 1997
4158Jack BurkittSep 04, 1954Dec 26, 1957
158Peter ShiltonMar 25, 1978Oct 22, 1980
6145Henry NewtonJan 18, 1964Mar 25, 1967
7138Bob McKinlayFeb 19, 1966Dec 14, 1968
8137George NeedhamSep 02, 1911Dec 12, 1914
9127Billy McKinlayDec 25, 1931Nov 17, 1934
10126Henry NewtonOct 14, 1967Apr 07, 1970
11123Ian BowyerOct 06, 1982Dec 29, 1984
12121Peter HindleyAug 20, 1969Dec 11, 1971
13120Jack ArmstrongApr 17, 1906Apr 12, 1909
14116Nigel CloughAug 27, 1985Dec 26, 1987
15114Ben OsbornAug 27, 2016Oct 30, 2018
16113Sammy ChapmanNov 29, 1969Mar 18, 1972
17111Bob WallaceAug 25, 1923Jan 09, 1926
18110Adam ScottNov 19, 1892Feb 22, 1896
19105Freddie ScottJan 14, 1950Apr 05, 1952
20103Jack BurkittDec 25, 1951Apr 03, 1954
21102Walter DudleyMar 04, 1905Nov 23, 1907
102Len LangfordSep 05, 1925Oct 29, 1927
102Bill MorleyNov 12, 1955Jan 04, 1958
102Mark CrossleyAug 25, 1990Mar 14, 1992
25101John WinfieldDec 02, 1967Jan 03, 1970



For comparison, here are the active consecutive appearances:
Game Count Player Start Game
2Harry ToffoloFeb 18, 2023
2Neco WilliamsFeb 18, 2023
1Jesse LingardFeb 25, 2023
1Sam SurridgeFeb 25, 2023