Heard the one about the former Stanley player who has just become a record breaker – and still can’t get in his current club’s starting line-up?
Brett Ormerod has ensured himself a place in the history books by becoming the first man to score in all four league divisions for Blackpool.
The 34-year-old came off the bench to score his first Premier League goal of the season as the Seasiders beat Tottenham 3-1 a week last Tuesday.
And yet it still wasn’t enough to earn him a place in the starting side for the trip to Wolves four days later.
Ormerod, who spent two years at Stanley before joining the Seasiders for the first of two spells in 1997, has been restricted largely to a substitute’s role this season.
He has made only five Premier League starts this term, despite scoring the goal that won the Championship play-off final against Cardiff at Wembley last May to take Blackpool up.
Ormerod, from Rishton, has come a long way since the days when he was banging in the goals for Stanley in the mid-1990s.
Back then, he combined his scoring exploits at the Crown Ground with a job earning £130 a week at Hall and Letts textile factory in Great Harwood.
"If you’d told me back then that one day I would make it to the Premier League, I’d have thought you were mad," he said.
"I’d never have believed that any of this was possible during my non-league days."
The factory closed down a couple of years ago, but Ormerod is still going strong at the top level of English football. He would just like to play a little more often.
"It’s been a bit more limiting and frustrating, because I want to play as much as the next man," he said.
"But just being around the club, it’s fantastic. Everything this season has been superb, so just to be a part of it is brilliant.
"I hope I can get a few more starts, and I’ll be pushing as hard as I can if selected."
Ormerod’s journey into the history books is perhaps an indication of his roundabout career since leaving Stanley 14 years ago.
Blackpool paid £50,000 to take him to Bloomfield Road, where he stayed until Southampton – then in the Premier League – signed him in 2001 for £1.75million, from which Stanley received £200,000 thanks to a sell-on clause.
His five years with Saints included an appearance at the 2003 FA Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to Arsenal, along with loan spells at Leeds and Wigan, before he joined Preston in 2006.
However, he broke his leg during North End’s play-off defeat against Leeds in 2007, and found it difficult to force his way back into the team when he was fit again.
Instead, he went out on loan to Nottingham Forest and Oldham, before returning to Blackpool in January 2009.
His first Blackpool goal came in what is now League One, against Carlisle in December 1997.
He then netted in League Two for the first time against Hull in August 2000.
Ormerod had already scored in the top two divisions for other clubs before returning to Bloomfield Road.
But he got his first Championship goal for the Seasiders against Newcastle early last season, before completing the set against Tottenham.
Ormerod is not the first player to score in all four divisions for one club – Ian Ashbee completed the full set for Hull two seasons ago.
Going further back, the Wimbledon trio of Alan Cork, Glyn Hodges and Kevin Gage all did it in the 1980s, while Northampton’s Barry Lines managed it in the 60s.
All the same, Ormerod is proud to have completed a little piece of history by being the first man to do it for Blackpool.
He said: "It will probably make a good quiz question in a few years.
"It’s nice to have a record like that and it’s nice that people will stop asking me now when I’m going to score a Premier League goal for Blackpool!
"Even if you try not to think about it, there are enough people out there who will remind you of it.
"I’ve never lost sleep over it and thought that it’s the end of the world if I don’t get it.
"I’ve scored plenty of goals in the Premier League for Southampton, so I’ve always known I can do it. It’s done now, so I hope I can kick on from there."
