BOBBIE Goulding needs eight goals for a career total of 500 with Saints as he approaches his 100th match for the club. His 492 goals have come in 97 matches and include 12 drop goals.

The skipper was the Stones Super League top kicker last year when he headed the chart with 120 goals.

His total included a joint Super League match record of 11 goals against Castleford Tigers. It is one of five occasions he has kicked 10 or more in a match, topped with a personal best of 12 against Warrington in 1995-96.

Goulding raced to the fastest ever century of goals from the start of a season when he reached the target in St Helens' 17th Cup and League match of 1996 after missing two games because on injury.

Since joining St Helens, Goulding has finished in the top two of the overall goals charts each season. Including representative matches, he was second with 158 in 1994-95; first with 135 in 1995-96 and top again with 162 last year.

A former Widnes St Maries amateur, Goulding turned professional with Wigan and made his senior debut as a 16-year-old scrum half in December 1988. He moved on to Leeds and Widnes before joining St Helens for a transfer tribunal fixed £160,000 - a record fee for a scrum-half. They ordered Saints to pay Widnes an immediate £135,000 plus £25,000 if he played four times for Great Britain and/or England, which he did.

Goulding made his St Helens debut in a 20-29 home League defeat against Doncaster on August 21 1994.

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