Norwich City top 100 appearances: Peter Mendham (30)

Peter Mendham, centre, celebrating Diss Town's FA Vase win at Wembley in 1994. Picture: Archant

267 appearances/29 goals

Norwich City manager Ken Brown was a huge fan of Peter Mendham.

Mendham was of Norfolk stock so it was no surprise when a young local talent was scooped up at the age of 15.

He made his debut in September 1978 and stretched every sinew in the Norwich City cause. Mendham wasn’t just all effort and passion – he was a good player with it.

Mendham was part of the 1985 Milk Cup winning team and won a Second Division Championship medal the following season as City bounced back at the first time of asking following relegation.

A pelvic injury forced him to retire in April 1987, but his association with the club remained; he became their Football in the Community Officer, working with schools across the county – although the post went at the end of the Robert Chase reign.

Mendham became manager of his hometown club, King’s Lynn, for a few months in the second half of 1987, continuing to play for the Linnets before joining Watton Town as player coach.

He went to Sweden and Holland in a bid to restart his career, but ended up playing for Diss Town and Wroxham and then returning to Diss, earning another glorious day out at Wembley as he scored the winning extra-time goal for the Tangerines as they won the 1994 FA Vase.

Mendham went on to have stints with a number of local non-league clubs and became an active fund-raiser for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

It would be remiss not to include less savoury moments of his life after football: he was banned from driving for a year after being found guilty of drink-driving, and then jailed for seven and a half years, reduced to five on appeal, after an assault on his then girlfriend.

He later set up the Yellow Brick Road Foundation, to help people in Norfolk who are experiencing problems from homelessness to the illness of a child.

In an interview with this newspaper in February, 2012, Mendham said: “I am fitter in body and mind than I have ever been. I lost my way. I’m finding it again.”