Albert Adomah Reaches 800 Games in Football
Albert Adomah has never been one for fuss. Which is just as well, because 800 games is the sort of number that usually brings a spotlight he would rather dodge.
On Saturday, at the Bescot, he quietly joined one of football’s most exclusive clubs. Walsall’s 38-year-old winger, the James Milner of the lower leagues, clocked up appearance No. 800 in a 2-0 win over Port Vale that lifted Lee Grant’s side to second in League Two, tucked in just behind leaders Barnet.
That’s where this story started. Barnet. League Two. January 2008.
Adomah would rather talk about Andy Dallas than himself. Specifically, Dallas’ ruthless, game-sealing strike.
“It was just a nice combination-play down the right between Chas (Crew) and myself – and a wonderful finish by Dallo,” he told BBC Radio WM. “He took it really well. Once it left his foot you could see it flying in.
“But really it’s just amazing to win. And in front of our supporters too. Just like I did in that first game for Barnet.”
From Edgar Street to 800
That first game is burned into his memory. Hereford United v Barnet. Also League Two. Also away from the glamour, deep in the English football grind. He scored.
It was the first of 99 league goals in a career total of 109. Another landmark quietly edging into view.
The numbers are staggering in their own way. Eight hundred games. None in League One. None in the National League. Just tier two and tier four, with only two brief Premier League cameos for Middlesbrough breaking the pattern.
Yet Adomah refuses to look too far ahead.
“What is my next target? 801 games,” he said. “That is the next landmark.
“I really just take it one game by game. It’s about the team first – and me staying fit enough to get as many minutes as possible.
“My job is just to stay available – and hopefully long may this journey continue.”
That mentality has underpinned everything since Paul Fairclough first trusted him at Edgar Street nearly 19 years ago.
A career built on managers and miles
The list of managers reads like a roll call of the modern English game. Twenty of them before Grant.
At Barnet, Ian Hendon and Mark Stimson guided him through three seasons before Bristol City came calling. At Ashton Gate, Steve Coppell signed him but quit after two games in August 2010, leaving Adomah to work under Keith Millen, Derek McInnes – now at Rangers – and Sean O’Driscoll.
Middlesbrough followed. Tony Mowbray brought him in, Aitor Karanka pushed on. It was at Boro that Adomah finally tasted the Premier League, if only twice, before dropping back into the Championship in search of regular football.
Aston Villa were next. Roberto Di Matteo signed him, Steve Bruce and Dean Smith used him. He left Villa Park without adding to those Premier League appearances, but with his reputation as a reliable Championship wide man firmly intact.
Nottingham Forest came after that, under Sabri Lamouchi, with a nine-game loan spell at Cardiff City under Neil Harris thrown in. When Forest let him go on the same day as Lamouchi during the Covid-hit October of 2020, it could have felt like a full stop.
Instead, it became another chapter.
QPR handed him four more years in the Championship. Mark Warburton first, then Michael Beale, Neil Critchley, Gareth Ainsworth and Marti Cifuentes. Five managers, one constant: Adomah’s willingness to do a job, wherever he was asked to do it.
Back in League Two, still hungry
League Two called again with Walsall. Mat Sadler brought him in, Darren Byfield had a spell in the dugout, then Grant took charge. Adomah has featured five times this season, four from the bench, but his impact remains obvious.
On Saturday, all three substitutes combined for the late second goal. Adomah’s clever involvement down the right, Crew’s support, Dallas’ thumping finish. A veteran’s pre-assist, the sort of detail that rarely makes headlines but wins the respect of dressing rooms.
“I’m just grateful that the manager made it possible by still having me on the bench and is still using me,” he said.
The London-born Ghana international, who represented his country at the 2014 World Cup, speaks with the same humility whether he is recalling that tournament or a cold afternoon in League Two. For him, the next game still matters as much as the first.
Walsall, after two failed promotion pushes, are back in the mix. Second in the table. Momentum building. A squad blending youth and experience, with a 38-year-old still sprinting up the right flank, still chasing, still caring.
Eight hundred games in. No fanfare, no farewell tour. Just Albert Adomah, looking at the fixture list and asking the only question that really interests him now:
Where does appearance No. 801 come?
