Proud Skipper Continuing The Climb

Conor Coady’s feat in becoming only the 36th man to play 300 or more League and cup games for Wolves could soon be followed by more milestones with club and country.

The much-admired Molineux captain is now only a handful of matches away from the honour of having made more senior Wanderers appearances than anyone else in the 21st century.

David Edwards (306) and Matt Doherty (302) stand in front of him, with Lee Naylor’s overall tally of 334 having contained several dozen outings in the late 1990s.

And the 17 Premier League fixtures that remain this season give Coady the chance to move to the brink of the club’s 30 all-time highest appearance-makers list before summer arrives.

There are other landmarks on the horizon for him if he cares to look.

His settled place in Gareth Southgate’s senior squad puts him in with an opportunity of becoming Wolves’ fourth most capped England player of all time.

That tag currently rests with Steve Bull on 13, with Coady five behind on eight at the start of a busy World Cup finals year.

Before moving in behind the incomparable Billy Wright (105), Ron Flowers (49) and Bert Williams (24) and above Wolves’ all-time record goalscorer, though, the Liverpudlian first has to find a way past another awesome Molineux quartet.

Stan Cullis, Jimmy Mullen, Bill Slater and Dennis Wilshaw all played 12 times for their country and it’s already comfortably over 30 years since anyone from the club (namely Bully around the time of Italia 90) reached a double-figure total of England caps. As usual, only caps won while players were with Wolves are included.

Southgate’s men have Wembley friendlies against Switzerland and the Ivory Coast late next month and then four summer games in the Nations League.

Coady turns 29 on February 25, the day after Wolves’ reaarranged Thursday night game at Arsenal. Celebration time will be short as there is also a trip to West Ham on the Sunday.