Sheerin clocks up 100 appearancesfor Lichties

Last updated : 28 February 2013 By Fargone

From the Courier  PAUL SHEERIN reaches a notable landmark on Saturday when he makes his 100th appearance for Arbroath against Alloa, the club he started his senior career with more than 20 years ago.

The Red Lichties player/manager will also hope to make it a double century celebration by hitting the back of the net.

He is sitting on 99 league goals in Scottish football during a 22-year spell, which has seen him make more than 500 league and cup appearances for Alloa, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Ayr United, Aberdeen, St Johnstone and now Arbroath.

Sheerin said: “I hadn’t actually realised I was about to make my 100th Arbroath appearance or that I had 99 league goals. It would be incredible if I could cap it with a goal on Saturday.”

The 38-year-old admits he still gets as much enjoyment from the game as he ever did and has no plans to begin winding down.

He said: “There’s no doubt, as I get older, it gets tougher but I’d like to keep playing for as long as possible.

“I think I made a slow start to this season but I feel as though I’m getting up to pace now and I’m coming into a bit of form.

“I definitely still feel I’ve got something to offer but I’ll review things again at the end of the season, as I do every year.

“It will depend to some extent on how the club fares because, if we do get promotion, it would be a lot harder for me in the First Division but we’ll see what happens.”

Sheerin also says he is comfortable in his joint role of player/manager but admits he values the support he gets from assistant Stewart Petrie.

He said: “Stewart takes responsibility at 3pm so that lets me concentrate on playing, although obviously I’ll have my say at half-time.

“I’ve talked with other guys like Paul Hartley, who’ll be at Gayfield with his Alloa side on Saturday, and he said he felt he had to stop playing because he couldn’t combine the two.

“I haven’t found that to be a problem so far.