Soccer Siftings: Sam Johnson, Bill Allsop, John Pickering and Halifax Town's other highest appearance holders

Assuming he’s fit – and selected, of course – when Sam Johnson takes the field for the visit of Gateshead on August 20, he will be making his 400th first team appearance for FC Halifax Town.

It’s no mean feat, given that most players at National League level stick around for only two to three years before moving on.

Big Sam clearly loves it here, and it goes without saying that he is far and away the leading record appearance maker for the club.

He surpassed the 274 appearances made by Scott McManus some time ago, and by reaching such a milestone joins an elite band of Shaymen to have reached the fantastic 400.

Players previously to have achieved this were clearly connected to the original club, and, in fact, only four players managed to reach and surpass this figure.

And of those, through no fault of their own I hasten to add, three of them featured in ‘unofficial’ wartime seasons.

Bill Allsop leads the way, the only player to attain over 500 appearances for Halifax Town, having joined the club in August 1934 following spells at Bolton Wanderers and Port Vale.

Signed by manager Alex Raisbeck, Allsop became an almost permanent fixture in the side over the next twelve seasons, establishing himself at full-back and helping the side to runners-up spot in his first season at The Shay.

Allsop missed only eight games in his first five seasons with the club and under manager Jimmy Thomson was elected captain at the start of the 1937-38 season.

Despite the outbreak of war in September 1939, Allsop continued to turn out for the club and completed a record run of 188 consecutive appearances when he played in the 7-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 14 April 1945, injury in that game forcing him to sit out the match at Bradford City the following week.

His only goal for the club had come during that run in a 3-2 defeat by Hartlepools United, a match played at West Hartlepool’s ground on 11 November 1939.

Allsop spent one more season at The Shay when the Football League recommenced in August 1946, taking his tally to 239 league appearances and 509 in all competitions, including those from wartime, of course.

He was awarded a benefit in 1947 and on 22 September 1947, Halifax Town side took on a Bill Allsop select side.

After hanging up his boots, Allsop ran Elite Taxis as well as working for United Biscuits in Ovenden, retiring as distribution depot manager in 1977.

Figuring alongside Allsop in the Town line-up for much of that period was half-back Ted Craig, who had joined the club two years before Allsop’s arrival.

Craig, a product of Scottish junior football with Stewarton Thistle, had experienced relegation with both Fulham and Bristol City before being signed by Raisbeck in August 1932.

He enjoyed better days with the Shaymen, even allowing for the debacles in the 10-0 defeat at Hull City in his first season and the record 13-0 humiliation at Stockport in his second.

Craig proved to be one of the club’s most reliable defenders having made the switch from inside-forward, a key member of the side which reached the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time, and as skipper in 1934-35 missed only one match as Town finished runners-up to Doncaster Rovers in the Third Division (North), Town’s highest-ever league placing.

Craig made a total of 287 league appearances for the Shaymen, and his inclusion in the side for the season’s penultimate game with Oldham Athletic in April 1937 extended to 104 his run of consecutive starts.

In 1938-39, Craig was awarded a benefit, and on 29 April 1939 Halifax Town took on First Division Everton, playing out a 3-3 draw in front of four thousand spectators at The Shay.

But for the outbreak of the war there is little doubt that Craig would have set a club record of league appearances, for though he was fast approaching his fortieth year, he was still an able member of the side and didn’t play his 452nd and last first team game until 16 October 1943 in a 4-3 defeat at Rochdale.

Another member of Halifax Town’s wartime sides was the genial Horace Green, whose total of 403 appearances included 226 during the war. He had been brought to the club by manager Thomson in November 1936 from Worsborough Bridge and gave the club twelve years’ great service.

He turned professional in August 1937 the following August and never looked back once he’d made his first team bow in a West Riding Senior Cup match at Leeds United the following October.

He showed his versatility by covering a number of positions, though it was at right-half he was mostly recognised.

An accomplished footballer and an obvious choice as skipper – he was first handed the role in 1947-48 under Jack Breedon – Green had made 72 league appearances for the club before the outbreak of the Second World War, but manager Thomson was fortunate that he could call on Green throughout the duration of that period, despite also working down the pits back home.

The torrid season Halifax Town endured upon the re-commencement of league football in 1946-47 was one blessed with few highlights, but a solo goal Green scored in an unexpected 4-1 victory at Hartlepools United was certainly one of them.

There, according to the Halifax Courier, Green ‘took the ball from the edge of his own box, evaded man after man before beating Heywood [the Hartlepools goalkeeper] with a surprise shot from the edge of the penalty area’.

Certainly a goal for Green to savour, one of only five he scored for the club before he moved to Lincoln City in February 1949.

At the time, the Imps were struggling in the Second Division and were relegated just a year after they had been promoted.

But manager Bill Anderson rebuilt the side and at long last, having made the right-back position his own, Green gained his first major honour, a Third Division (North) championship medal when he appeared in 38 matches as Lincoln City edged out Grimsby Town in a thrilling title race in 1951-52.

Green went on to rack up 212 league appearances for Lincoln, scoring eight goals, before retiring in 1955.

Only one other Halifax Town player mustered more than 400 appearances for the club, and avid supporters will not be surprised to learn that it was John Pickering, whose total of 413 in all competitions included a club record 367 Football League appearances.

Pickering had made a stuttering start to his career, rejected as a junior by Chelsea, but he slipped quietly into The Shay to sign for the club after travelling with Newcastle United for a reserve match at Huddersfield Town on 14 September 1965, costing Halifax Town £1,250.

He went on to leave an indelible impression, being a stalwart in the heart of the defence under managers Alan Ball Snr and George Kirby, and developing a great understanding with defensive partner Tony Rhodes.

Pickering was ever-present in four of his ten seasons with the Shaymen, and highlights from his time at the club included skippering the side to promotion from the Fourth Division in 1968-69 and the defeat of a star-studded Manchester United in the Watney Cup in July 1971, as well as being named the Supporters’ Player of the Year at the end of that season.

All-told, Pickering served under five managers at The Shay, finally being released by George Mulhall in 1974 and joining Barnsley, where he furthered a coaching career which had actually begun with local side Elland United.

Pickering’s first professional coaching position was under former Shay team mate Jim Smith at Blackburn, where he eventually became manager, shelling out a then club record £75,000 for the mercurial Duncan McKenzie in February 1979.

He later held coaching positions at Carlisle United, Lincoln City and Newcastle United before being appointed coach to Lennie Lawrence at Middlesbrough, where he spent over ten years coaching, and his service to the club was recognised when serving manager Bryan Robson gave him the honour of leading the team out at Wembley for the Coca-Cola Cup final against Chelsea in 1998.

After a long illness Pickering died in May 2001.

Aside from the above named, and despite the club utilising the services of nearly 1,500 players between 1911 and 2008, only a handful actually reached the barrier of 300 appearances for the Shaymen.

Pickering’s team mate, goalkeeper Alex Smith, enjoyed a nine-year association with the club, making 381 appearances in all competitions. David Evans, who skippered the side to victory over Manchester City in January 1980 in the first of two spells here, finished with 336 (286 league appearances), whilst Alex South amassed 330 appearances, being the holder of a record 302 league appearances before Pickering beat him.

Paul Stoneman, who gave Halifax Town ten years’ service and was the player to receive a benefit in May 2005, made 307 appearances, a tally which included 137 in the Conference and 139 in the league and just shaded that of pre-and-post-war Tom Barkas, a good friend of Bill Allsop, who made 303 appearances, including wartime.

Since 2008, and third behind Scott McManus, is Matt Glennon with 181 appearances, followed by Tom Baker (165), Matty Brown (161) and Lee Gregory (153).

Sam Johnson has made 28 appearances in the FA Trophy, a total which betters the 25 Ted Craig made in the FA Cup, and having already overtaken keeper Alex Smith’s tally of 341 league appearances, Johnson should go on to surpass Pickering’s league record this term.

It’s a moot point, of course, that Pickering’s haul was in the Football League, in which Johnson hasn’t played – yet.