Derek Fazackerley: 'My record may never be broken'

Derek Fazackerley, 674 appearances.

It is a club record that the man himself thinks may never be broken.

“It’s highly unlikely that you’ll get anyone approaching those sorts of figures again,” he said.

“The incentives are not there for players to do it now, the incentives are there for players to move on all the time.”

Fazackerley spent 18 years at Rovers, between 1969 and 1987.

But he feared for a period that he might not make one appearance – let alone 674.

“I was born in Preston and grew up a Preston fan,” Fazackerley says. “Blackburn were one of the clubs who showed an interest in me and I think they were the first ones to offer me a contract once my schooling had finished, so I signed for them.

“It was a terrific opportunity.

“But I tore a thigh muscle and I couldn’t play for a year.

“It was disturbing really because we had a physiotherapist who was good at his job but they couldn’t get to the bottom of what it was.

“I went to see a specialist after about three months and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Well don’t worry, it’s not cancer’. I thought, ‘I’d never considered it was’.

“He said you’ve got some bone in the muscle, it will get better but it will probably take a long time, around 12 months. Obviously there were doubts in my own mind about whether I was ever going to be fit enough to play football.

“But the club were good with me. The manager Eddie Quigley said, ‘You can’t just sit around for a year, go and have a look at games’.

“I would go scouting, I’d go to Blackpool or Preston and maybe have a look at the opposition we were playing in two weeks’ time.

“I’d do a little match report. That kept me occupied.”

Having done such scouting before he had even reached the age of 20, it is perhaps little surprise that after his playing days he would go on to have a long career in coaching.

It is a career that still continues as Fazackerley, now 61, prepares to return to pre-season as first-team coach at Birmingham City.

His first appearance for Rovers did eventually come almost by accident in February 1971.

"It was a little bit unique in that we were playing Hull City away," recalls the former centre back.

"I wasn’t in the team, I was 13th man, there was only one substitute allowed then, and the game got abandoned at half time because of fog. We were 2-0 down.

"I was picked for the replayed game about 10 days later and we managed to get a 0-0 draw. Hull were a little bit upset, having been 2-0 up before.

"There must have been 20-odd thousand at Boothferry Park, virtually a full house. It was a fantastic occasion.

"Hull were the leading lights in the league at that time and to come away with a point was a big thing."

He could not have imagined, though, that he would go on to play so many games for the club – 596 in the league.

Fazackerley passed Ronnie Clayton’s previous record of 665 appearances in all competitions in his final season at the club.

"I can’t honestly remember which game it was when I broke Ronnie Clayton’s record," he said.

"But I can remember my 500th game, it was away at Chelsea and the only reason I remember it is because Ken Bates presented me with a bottle of champagne on the pitch before the game.

"Obviously when you set out, and for me particularly having the injury in my first year, to play so many games was something that you can only dream about.

"I wasn’t something I set out to do, it just happened.

"What sort of player was I? I’d say I was a loyal player for all the managers I worked for.

"I was consistent, I wasn’t the greatest passer of the ball but I was a good solid defender.

"And I must have done something right to satisfy all of those managers from Eddie Quigley to Johnny Carey, Ken Furphy, Gordon Lee, Jim Smith, Bobby Saxton and the rest.

"After that bad injury to start with I didn’t suffer too many injuries after that, so I was fortunate in that respect.

"But to play that number of games you do have to be able to play with injuries sometimes and I can remember playing with broken ribs, broken toes, a broken nose. You just get on with it.

"Sometimes I think maybe I shouldn’t have played, but I did do and it was the way I was.

"Even now I don’t know what I would do on a Saturday if there was no football."

There were opportunities to leave Rovers though during those 18 years.

He admits he would have followed manager Jim Smith to Birmingham in 1978, had the move not fallen through.

But he did turn down a move to Oldham when Rovers were ready to sell to the fellow Second Division side.

"Oldham offered a lot of money for me, about £100,000 and the club actually wanted me to go," Fazackerley says.

"But I said, ‘No, I don’t want to go to Oldham’. I didn’t want to be disrespectful to them, I just didn’t think it was a step up.

"At the time Blackburn were struggling for money and £100,000 was a lot of money.

"Later they sold Kevin Hird for £350,000 to Leeds, so that was the money problem solved.

"Then Jim Smith left to go to Birmingham City and he tried to take me with him but for whatever reason it never worked out.

"He ended up signing Colin Todd instead. He probably wasn’t a bad judge there!

"My contract had expired and if the move had happened I would have gone, there’s no doubt about that.

"But I stayed under Howard Kendall. Blackburn offered me a new contract, a better one than what I was on and from there we had a good time.

"There was a time as well when Howard would have taken me to Everton but it just didn’t work out.

"But I’m proud of the fact that I played so many games for Blackburn.

"Would I change it now if I got the opportunity?

"Probably not, no."

Tomorrow: The pain of missing out on the First Division and my Ewood exit