Albert Adomah Celebrates 800 Games in Football
Albert Adomah never wanted this to be about him.
That feels almost absurd when you look at the number: 800 senior games. Eight hundred. A figure that usually belongs to one-club legends or Champions League regulars, not a winger who has quietly criss-crossed the Football League for nearly two decades.
Yet on the day he hit that milestone, in Walsall’s 2-0 win over Port Vale, Adomah wanted to talk about something else entirely.
Andy Dallas’ finish.
“The second goal was a wonderful finish,” he told BBC Radio WM, still buzzing from the move that sealed the points. A flowing combination down the right, all three substitutes involved, the ball eventually arcing off Dallas’ boot and into the net. “Once it left his foot you could see it flying in.”
That’s Albert Adomah. Career landmark? Fine. But did you see the goal?
From Barnet to 800
The win lifted Lee Grant’s Walsall up to second in League Two, tucked in behind leaders Barnet. Fitting, really. Because that is where this long, winding journey started.
January 2008. Edgar Street. Hereford United v Barnet. League Two. Paul Fairclough gives a raw winger his debut.
“I remember that first game vividly,” Adomah said. Same division. Same lower-league graft. Different life. “And I scored.”
That was the first of 99 league goals in a career tally of 109. The numbers are scattered across a map of English football: Barnet, Bristol City, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City, QPR, Walsall. Almost 19 years, 20 managers, two divisions and a brief taste of the Premier League.
No League One. No National League. Just tiers two and four, with those two top-flight appearances for Middlesbrough nudging through the ceiling for a moment.
One more game, one more minute
At 38, Adomah is still not talking about retirement, farewell tours or testimonials. He is talking about the next match.
“What is my next target? 801 games,” he said. “That is the next landmark.
“I really just take it one game by game. It’s about the team first – and me staying fit enough to get as many minutes as possible. My job is just to stay available – and hopefully long may this journey continue.”
Saturday’s outing was only his fifth appearance of the season, four of them from the bench. But the London-born Ghana international, who went to the 2014 World Cup, is not demanding anything. He is simply grateful to still be in the conversation.
“I’m just grateful that the manager made it possible by still having me on the bench and is still using me,” he said.
Grant is the latest in a long line of bosses to lean on Adomah’s experience and attitude. There have been many.
At Barnet alone he worked under Ian Hendon and Mark Stimson before Bristol City came calling. At Ashton Gate, he barely had time to settle. Steve Coppell resigned after two games in August 2010, having used Adomah just twice, and three more managers followed: Keith Millen, Derek McInnes and Sean O’Driscoll.
Middlesbrough brought two further names – Tony Mowbray, who signed him, and Aitor Karanka, who took him to the Premier League and handed him those two top-flight appearances.
Then came Aston Villa. Roberto Di Matteo brought him in, Steve Bruce and Dean Smith also picked him, but the story was the same: Championship toil, no further Premier League minutes.
From there, it was Nottingham Forest under Sabri Lamouchi, with a nine-game loan spell under Neil Harris at Cardiff City. When Forest parted company with Lamouchi in October 2020 during the Covid pandemic, Adomah left on the same day.
QPR followed. Four years, five managers: Mark Warburton, Michael Beale, Neil Critchley, Gareth Ainsworth and Marti Cifuentes. Then it was back to League Two with Walsall, signed by Mat Sadler and later working under Darren Byfield and now Grant.
The constant? Adomah turns up, plays his role, and rarely makes it about himself.
Still loving the grind
There is something almost romantic about a player still getting excited by a League Two home win after 800 games. No cynicism. No weariness. Just the same buzz he felt as a young winger at Edgar Street.
Against Port Vale, he did not score. He did not start. But he still left a fingerprint on the result.
That late second goal, the one he wanted to celebrate most, came from “a nice combination-play down the right” between himself and Chas Crew, before Dallas thumped it home. All three substitutes involved. All three sharp. All three making a point about Walsall’s depth and drive.
“It was just amazing to win,” Adomah said. “And in front of our supporters too. Just like I did in that first game for Barnet.”
Walsall have fallen short in their last two promotion pushes. This season, they are back in the mix, second in the table and building momentum. Adomah is no longer the explosive winger who terrorised full-backs week after week, but he is still there, still available, still ready.
He has 800 games behind him. The only number he cares about now is the next one – and how far this Walsall side can ride his experience in another promotion chase.
