LEISTON | MILESTONE FOR SKIPPER

Seb Dunbar makes his 400th appearance

When Seb Dunbar led Leiston out at Bedford Town for their Pitching In Southern League Premier Central encounter on Tuesday evening, it was his 400th appearance for the club.

Spread over three spells since he first arrived in 2012, he has given the club sterling service and whilst they slipped to a stoppage time defeat in their last outing, the 32 year-old believes that both he and the team are starting to get into their stride following a frustrating start to the current campaign.

“I am very proud to reach this milestone,” he told us. “I’ve played around 40 games a season, which at any level, is a good achievement.

“To still be playing regularly at Step 3 level is something that I am definitely pleased about.

“If I’m being honest, when I made my debut for the club 12 years ago I didn’t think that I would go on to make so many appearances for one club. I hoped that I would go on to have a decent career, of course, but players making this number of appearances for a single club is becoming increasingly rare in the modern game.

“I can remember my debut being fast and aggressive with the tackles flying in. As a young player fresh out of Academy football [with Ipswich Town], it was a shock to the system.

“My game has certainly improved in a lot of areas since then. I’d like to think that I’ve played to a high level throughout my time at Leiston and always given my all.

“The club has always overachieved and pushed on a lot, which is great. For such a small area and budget compared to most that we come up against in this League, we have done extremely well.

“This season has started slowly for me. I missed games at the start through injury, but I am back playing again and happy with my contribution so far. With more game time I’ll get my match fitness levels back up to where they need to be and I’ll keep improving.

“I think that as a team we are starting to find some rhythm now. We had a poor start, but results have started to pick up over the past month. There’s a lot more to come from us and we will be up there at the right end of the table.

“I do think that the Premier Central is the weakest it’s been for a few years this season; a lot of the big clubs with big budgets have gone and it does make things more competitive with more teams have the chance to do well and make an impact.

“We are targeting a place in the play-offs and we’ll be doing all we can to achieve that objective.”

Attention turns to the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday with a third qualifying round home tie against Hornchurch.

IMAGE: Leiston FC