A few months on, club captain and legend Scott Arnold has spoken of his pride at being just the second player, behind Jamie Sturgess, to have made 600 appearances for Wimborne Town FC in the modern era.
“I’m very proud considering what the club and I have been through. I’ve had some major injuries over the course of my career here and the club have had some hard times as well; a lot of players left but I managed to stay put and stay loyal, and here we are now.” Said Scott Arnold as we had a chat before training on a freezing Thursday night.
Appearance 600 was a long time coming - in fact it was only at the third time of asking that the game finally came round, and even when the game did finally come [at home to Hamworthy on Boxing Day] ‘Arnie’, as he’s known round the club, nearly didn’t play.
“It was the third time of trying after all those postponements and on the morning of it I had that flu thing that was going round and I wasn’t feeling great… But I had so many people coming to watch, I didn’t want to miss it for anything.” Arnold said.
In true Arnie style however, that game went from the sublime to the ridiculous very quickly…
“It could only happen to me… From kick-off they sent it back to midfield. The first long ball on the diagonal meant the first challenge between me and the striker… I won the header but lead with my forearm and snapped it on the back of his head!”
Arnold laughed as he was telling me this and continued: “I knew straight away something wasn’t right. I gave it another five minutes, turned to the bench and they said yeah that’s broke, off you come.”
After 600 appearances, Arnie has so many memorable moments to reflect on: from making his debut under his dad against Bridport in 2003, to playing against Manchester United, Arsenal and Rangers. One moment however stands out above the rest.
“That game where we were losing 4-0 at home against Halesowen… We got it back to 4-4, then I decided to go on a rampage from right back and score the winner! Massive scenes, shirt off, I was on the back on the echo… Shameless photo with my top off, I’ll never live that down! [laughs]”
Looking towards the future, Arnie is thinking of potential plans for after football, but says management isn’t for him.
Arnie said: “I would love to get in to coaching but managing is not for me I don’t think. I couldn’t have the hassle telling these boys you’ve got to be there at that time and making up an excuse like their cats died or something – I couldn’t put up with that, in fact I play alongside it! [laughs]”
Making 600 appearances is an amazing feat, especially in modern day football, and this is something that manager Tim Sills was keen to stress when talking about his captain.
“It’s something that doesn’t happen very much now – loyalty to that extent is pretty much unheard of. It really is a fantastic achievement for him; I’m delighted that he’s done it at such a good club and I’m delighted that I could have been here as well to see it.”
Scott Arnold is a Magpies legend for good reason and with his recovery nearly complete, it hopefully won’t be too long until appearance 601. However, until then, he sits on 600 not out.
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