Former Blues skipper Luke Chambers hit the 800-career appearance milestone for his current club Colchester on Tuesday evening and admits he never imagined that he would go on to play so many games when he made his senior debut aged 17 with Northampton.
Chambers joined the Blues on a free transfer in the summer of 2012 following a five-and-a-half-year spell with Nottingham Forest.
The 36-year-old was the club’s skipper for most of his time at the club before being among those to depart last summer. He made 396 appearances of his 800 appearances for the Blues.
"I'm still feeling very fit and strong,” Chambers told the Colchester Gazette following Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers. "I'm enjoying playing, so it's another milestone.
"You start to look at records and how many people have played more than that. I think there are only five or six players in the Football League who have played more, so it's something I can be very proud of.
"When you first start, you're just like 'can I get to 25 games, 50 games, 100 games’ - it's never on the radar.
"When I take a bit of reflection and look back on the games that I've played, 800 is just something I couldn't have even imagined when I started as a 17-year-old at Northampton Town.
"I've had some success in my career and I'd like to think that I'm passing that experience onto my team-mates, especially a lot of the younger boys here.
"They seem to bounce off me quite a lot and it's a privilege to be playing with some of the young boys who are beginning their career when it seems like yesterday, I was starting mine.”