Jamie Cureton is set to reach an appearance milestone on Monday night as he comes back from a three-match suspension for Exeter City's game at home to Torquay United.
The game, which is live on Sky TV, will be the 37-year-old's 700th appearance in the English Football League in a career that has has spanned almost 20 years.
Cureton made his debut for Norwich at the age of 17, on February 5, 1993. He spent three years at Carrow Road, before moving onto his hometown club Bristol Rovers where he scored 68 goals in a 170 appearances.
After that Cureton moved to Reading in 2000, for a fee of £250,000. He spent three years at the club and scored 51 goals in 111 appearances.
Cureton then made a switch to K-League side BusanI'Cons, but he failed to settle at the East Asian club and after being released from his contract he returned to England at Queen's Park Rangers. However, he failed to make a serious impact at QPR, or his next club Swindon Town, and as a result he joined Colchester United in 2006.
At Colchester, he found his goalscoring form again. His 23 goals in the 2006-07 season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer. At the end of the season Cureton then moved back to Norwich where he scored 16 times in 67 appearances, before moving onto Exeter City in 2010.
His scoring record at Exeter City has also been impressive, with him netting 31 goals in 65 appearances for the club.
Reaching the 700th milestone puts Cureton in the same group as players like former Exeter City manager Alan Ball (743), current Exeter City's director of football Steve Perryman (725) and former Leeds United and Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister (720). Cureton is already ahead of Sir Stanley Matthews (697), but a long way behind record Football League appearance holder Peter Shilton. He has picked up a 1,005 appearances. The record for most appearances for an outfield player is held by Tony Ford. The right-sided midfielder picked up 931 appearances before retiring in 2001.
The game, which is live on Sky TV, will be the 37-year-old's 700th appearance in the English Football League in a career that has has spanned almost 20 years.
Cureton made his debut for Norwich at the age of 17, on February 5, 1993. He spent three years at Carrow Road, before moving onto his hometown club Bristol Rovers where he scored 68 goals in a 170 appearances.
After that Cureton moved to Reading in 2000, for a fee of £250,000. He spent three years at the club and scored 51 goals in 111 appearances.
Cureton then made a switch to K-League side BusanI'Cons, but he failed to settle at the East Asian club and after being released from his contract he returned to England at Queen's Park Rangers. However, he failed to make a serious impact at QPR, or his next club Swindon Town, and as a result he joined Colchester United in 2006.
At Colchester, he found his goalscoring form again. His 23 goals in the 2006-07 season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer. At the end of the season Cureton then moved back to Norwich where he scored 16 times in 67 appearances, before moving onto Exeter City in 2010.
His scoring record at Exeter City has also been impressive, with him netting 31 goals in 65 appearances for the club.
Reaching the 700th milestone puts Cureton in the same group as players like former Exeter City manager Alan Ball (743), current Exeter City's director of football Steve Perryman (725) and former Leeds United and Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister (720). Cureton is already ahead of Sir Stanley Matthews (697), but a long way behind record Football League appearance holder Peter Shilton. He has picked up a 1,005 appearances. The record for most appearances for an outfield player is held by Tony Ford. The right-sided midfielder picked up 931 appearances before retiring in 2001.
