Glaswegian James Lawrence took his place in the United citadel on no less than 496 occasions in his fourteen seasons (1904/05 - 1925/26) as the club's first choice goalkeeper. He would have made even more appearances if he had not lost four years to the War. Joined as a nineteen-year-old and stayed until he was thirty-three.
In 1968/69 Bryan "Pop" Robson played a grand total of 59 games (League:42, League Cup:3, FA Cup:2, Fairs Cup:12). Little wonder he stated at the time "ten more games and I would have been completely blown out".
Tommy Gibb made his United debut in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough in the second game of the 1968/69 season. Thereafter he played in every single competitive game until he was named as sub for the away match against Arsenal on October 9th 1971.
Shearer had to do an additional season and plough an increasingly lone furrow up front, but it was enough to allow him to overtake Wor Jackie's 200 goal haul and ensure him a place in Toon history. If he had not missed a significant number of games through injury his haul would have been even more impressive
See Top Scorers All Time for the other big hitters.
Hughie scored twice on his debut and never looked back. He finished with 143 goals in 174 games a strike rate of 82%. As a striker he was playing at exactly the right time with the offside law amendment bringing a glut of goals, but it was still a remarkable total. He would have had more if he had been the club's regular penalty taker during all of his time at the club. Gallagher took none in his first three seasons.
Special mention for Arthur Bottom whose strike rate of 10 goals in 11 games is the actual best.
It is very rare for a goalscoring record to be set in modern day football with the meaner defenders and correspondingly lower goal scores; therefore it was quite an achievement when Cole notched 41 goals in only 45 matches in the 1994/95 season. Of course like Gallagher Cole's total was not supplemented by penalties.
Len Shackleton was credited with a double hat-trick (including three in five minutes) when he made his debut in the Second Division game against Newport in October 1946. The last goal came when Shack hit the ball across goal and Wookey could only run the ball into his own net. The referee originally said own-goal but later changed his mind.
Willie Wardrope scored in 9 consecutive games between October and December 1895, netting 13 goals in all. Born in Linthouse he had only joined United in August and would finish as top scorer that season. "He was a capital outside-right who had neither height nor weight but played the game without flurry, even when cornered”.