Long Eaton United veteran Paul McGinty recently joined an elite group of players at the Grange Park club when he clocked up his 350th start for the KoolSport NCEL Premier Division side.

The Derby-born defender (pictured left) reached the milestone in last month's Derbyshire Senior Cup clash with Buxton and becomes only the fifth man to get to that number.

Only Pete McGurk (436), Bob Limb (396), Jim Fairley (372) and Nigel Whitehead (356) have started more games than him.

All but 25 of the matches McGinty's begun have been whilst the club have been members of the NCEL.

Having made his debut in August 2001, he has given great service to the club and, including his substitute appearances, Paul has actually appeared in 383 games.

That surpasses even the record of current club chairman, Jim Fairley.