After 17 seasons, 694 appearances, 78 goals, three promotions and relegations, 11 different managers (including caretakers) and matches at 105 different stadiums - the end is finally nigh for James Coppinger's playing career at Doncaster Rovers!
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| Copps on signing for Doncaster Rovers in May 2004 (Photo: Unknown). |
Whether it be that breathtaking Belle Vue run in the Carling Cup, beating some noisy neighbours at Wembley in the League One Play-Off Final, good times in the Championship before the farcical 'experiment' era or promotion successes later in his career, the undisputed club legend has experienced every possible emotion in his time at DRFC.
There have been points when a departure has seemed close - such as a mooted move to Rotherham midway through the 2005/06 season or a loan stint at Nottingham Forest seven years later which didn't work out and saw him return and score that goal against Brentford.
It's almost certain that the No.26 will pull on the red and white hoops for the 695th and final time on Sunday as Rovers meet Peterborough at the Keepmoat Stadium - a fixture which will be precisely 6,112 days after his debut at Bradford City in August 2004.
The world has changed a lot since that time - a month which saw the Olympic Games in Athens and Edward Munch's iconic 'The Scream' painting pinched by armed robbers, whilst Busted topped the music charts and Bradley Walsh was on TV screens playing a character in Coronation Street.
To put into context just how long ago it was, the entire intake of first-year scholars into next season's youth team were born after the 40-year-old pulled on a Doncaster shirt for the first time.
But exactly how many players has Copps played alongside at Doncaster Rovers?
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| Copps celebrates after the famous win at Brentford (Photo: Doncaster Free Press). |
Well, including one 'father and son' combination, listed below are the 261 players to have been on the pitch at the same time as James Coppinger during at least one of his 694 competitive outings. They include a multitude of players - some of whom went on to have stellar careers themselves whilst others left their potential largely unfilled.
Mark Albrighton
Chris Beardsley
Chris Beech
Greg Blundell
Andy Campbell
John Doolan
Nick Fenton
Leo Fortune-West
Steve Foster
Paul Green
Lewis Guy
Michael Ingham
Guy Ipoua
Ben Jackson
Simon Johnson
Stuart Jones
Simon Marples
Michael McIndoe
Jermaine McSporran
Dave Morley
Dave Muligan
Craig Nelthorpe
Jamie Price
Nic Priet
Ricky Ravenhill
Adriano Rigoglioso
Neil Roberts
Tim Ryan
Francis Tierney
Iain Turner
Andy Warrington
Mark Wilson
Alun Armstrong
Alan Blayney
Jan Budtz
Jonathan Forte
Anthony Griffith
Paul Heffernan
Kevin Horlock
Adam Hughes
Graeme Lee
Ross McCormack
Sean McDaid
Phil McGuire
Richard Offiong
Sam Oji
Uros Predic
Jason Price
Steve Roberts
Dino Seremet
Sean Thornton
Michael Timlin
David Wheater
Danny Cadamarteri
Michele Di Piedi
Bruce Dyer
Peter Gilbert
Sam Hird
Adam Lockwood
Mark McCammon
James O'Connor
Jon-Paul Pittman
Gareth Roberts
Ben Smith
Brian Stock
Theo Streete
Neil Sullivan
Harry Worley
Alan Wright
Stuart Elliott
Gordon Greer
James Hayter
Matt Mills
Gareth Taylor
Richie Wellens
Martin Woods
Steve Brooker
Darren Byfield
James Chambers
Waide Fairhurst
Shelton Martis
Dean Shiels
John Spicer
Gary Woods
Jos Van Nieuwstadt
Mustapha Dumbuya
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Quinton Fortune
Simon Gillett
Jordan Mutch
John Oster
Jason Shackell
Billy Sharp
Elliot Ward
Byron Webster
Ryan Burge
Jason Euell
George Friend
David Healy
Paul Keegan
Matt Kilgallon
Ryan Mason
Joe Mills
Franck Moussa
Dennis Souza
Wayne Thomas
Mamadou Bagayoko
Habib Bamogo
Giles Barnes
James Baxendale
Kyle Bennett
Habib Beye
Chris Brown
David Button
Pascal Chimbonda
El Hadji Diouf
Marc-Antoine Fortune
Herold Goulon
James Husband
Carl Ikeme
Herita Ilunga
Chris Kirkland
Milan Lalkovic
Richard Naylor
Jon Parkin
Freddie Piquionne
Fabien Robert
Tommy Spurr
Robbie Blake
David Cotterill
Lee Fowler
Dean Furman
Andy Griffin
James Harper
Iain Hume
Rob Jones
John Lundstram
Jamie McCombe
Billy Paynter
Paul Quinn
Emile Sinclair
Dave Syers
Liam Wakefield
Jordan Bowery
Marc De Val Fernandez
Mark Duffy
Harry Forrester
Sam Johnstone
Bongani Khumalo
Federico Macheda
Luke McCullough
Abdoulaye Meite
Lucas Neill
Alex Peterson
Theo Robinson
Enda Stevens
Gabriel Tamas
Ross Turnbull
Reece Wabara
Yun Suk-Young
Andy Butler
Stephen Bywater
Jonson Clarke-Harris
Cedric Evina
Uche Ikpeazu
Mitchell Lund
Curtis Main
Liam Mandeville
Marko Marosi
Jack McKay
Harry Middleton
Abdul Razak
Jed Steer
Nathan Tyson
Billy Whitehouse
Craig Alcock
Keshi Anderson
Riccardo Calder
Richard Chaplow
Oscar Gobern
Lynden Gooch
Conor Grant
James Horsfield
Eddy Lecygne
Gary MacKenzie
Remi Matthews
Felipe Mattioni
Gary McSheffrey
Dany N'Guessan
Chris Neal
Tommy Rowe
Cameron Stewart
Thorsten Stuckmann
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair
Andy Williams
Danny Amos
Mathieu Baudry
Alfie Beestin
Matty Blair
Ross Etheridge
Tyler Garrett
Jordan Houghton
Ian Lawlor
John Marquis
Niall Mason
Alfie May
Frazer Richardson
Joe Wright
Tom Anderson
Danny Andrew
Issam Ben Khemis
Andy Boyle
Alex Kiwomya
Rodney Kongolo
Harry Toffolo
Ben Whiteman
Jermaine Anderson
Ali Crawford
Shaun Cummings
Paul Downing
Lirak Hasani
Branden Horton
Herbie Kane
Aaron Lewis
Kieran Sadlier
Tyler Smith
Paul Taylor
Mallik Wilks
Alex Baptiste
Rakish Bingham
Devante Cole
Donervon Daniels
Seny Dieng
Niall Ennis
Jason Lokilo
Madger Gomes
AJ Greaves
Brad Halliday
Reece James
Cameron John
Fejiri Okenabirhie
Jake Ramsey
Ben Sheaf
Kaziah Sterling
Jon Taylor
Kwame Thomas
Max Watters
Ellery Balcombe
Omar Bogle
John Bostock
Joe Bursik
Tyreece John-Jules
Louis Jones
Joe Lumley
Matt Smith
Liam Ravenhill
Taylor Richards
Scott Robertson
Elliot Simoes
Josh Sims
Ed Williams
There are also six players who have appeared for DRFC in the same game as Copps though were not actually on the pitch at the same time. Those players are:
Adam Brown
Liam Green
Will Longbottom
Jake Fletcher
Rieves Boocock
Rayhaan Tulloch
Furthermore, there have also been 42 players who who were unused substitutes at some stage or another but never got to play alongside the veteran midfielder. Again, this include a mixture of individuals - some of whom made appearances in other games (in which Copps didn't feature), whilst some never made a senior appearance. In chronological order, they are:
Jon Maloney
Lee Cockerham
Ross Flitney
Barry Richardson
Tonny Nielsen
Rob Pacey
Matt Noble
Kyle Letheren
Robbie Clarke
Chaz Fisher
Josh Payne
Aaron Jones
Brad Grayson
Simon Whaley
Jordan Bradshaw
Ben Alnwick
Jonny Maxted
Oscar Radford
Eddie Wilding
Jordan Ball
Lamine Diatta
Damien Plessis
Jordan Binns
Josh Meade
Paddy Mullen
Cameron Howieson
Evan Finnegan
Lewis Ferguson
Ben Askins
Paul McKay
Scott Brown
Jack McLaren
Michael Carberry
Jordan Linley
Matty Davies
Kevin Mbuti
Joe Pugh
Reece Fielding
Cody Prior
Shane Blaney
Ben Blythe
Ben Bottomley
A handful of other players have also been at the club at the same time though, for one reason or another, were never involved in the same matchday squad. These names include:
John McGrath
John Filan
Tomi Ameobi
Kazenga Lua Lua
Rachid Bouhenna
Tyler Walker
James Morris
Therefore, 261 players have featured in a competitive game alongside James Coppinger, six others have took part in the same game, whilst a further 42 have been unused substitutes - giving a total of 309 players to have been involved in the same matchday squad as the club legend.
What a career it has been!
*All information sourced from Soccerbase*
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