Zzzzzzztatattack

As previously promised, and as previously encouraged to pull my finger out by Phil C, I have now updated the appearances 'league table' somewhere down the right-hand side of the blog. To say that having done so "throws up some interesting statistics" would be stretching the truth, but here are the 'highlights' of the appearance stats (sans a soundtrack of music by Daft Punk or Steppenwolf that would see this blog post taken down by The Man. This is a reference that approx only one other person will get, sorry.)

• First up, yours truly has passed 250 Accies 11-a-side appearances. Hip hip replacement hooray. My younger brother Andrew is hot on my heels just 3 games away from the same milestone.

• Luis Sandoval, in the form of his life and fitter than ever, is on 196 appearances, so on the verge of becoming only the fifth player to reach a double century.

• Dave Rudd needs 10 more appearances to make 200, so might have to wait until early 2012 to be number six in that exclusive group.

• Perre Heath has played in 98 11-a-side matches for the Accies, so will very soon be the 14th player to have pulled on the red'n'blue shirt 100 times. Perre's hefty total is particularly impressive when you consider that he only made his Effra debut in match number 178 – so those 98 appearances have been from a possible 132 matches. That's impressive commitment (and a sign of a young player who has been thankfully largely injury-free).

And finally, a quick goalscoring stat moment. Graham Dietz almost certainly set an Effra record in Rotterdam for the longest gap between 11-a-side goals for the club. Gza last netted on 17 March 2005, coming on as a sub to score both goals in a 2-1 win over The Pullman. That was our 57th ever 11-a-side game. No less than 2,362 days later – or 6 years, 3 months and 18 days if you prefer – he bagged another brace, this time our first and fourth goals in the 5-2 win that was our 309th ever 11-a-side. Thanks to this site for doing the sums on how many days had passed between those matches! Depressingly, yours truly is the only Accie with any chance of breaking this record (short of some former members making a Dietz-esque comeback in the future, which of course would be most welcome). 30 September 2011 will mark the SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY of my one and only 11-a-side goal for Effra Academicals. I'd be tempted to ask that if we get a penalty against Orient Young Boys on 29 September, could I take it – except that I'd almost certainly miss it!

I think stat's quite enough of stat (hey, that might be my new catchphrase).

Up the Accies!