The Motherwell captain is entitled to be proud of reaching this landmark in his career at Fir Park. Writing on his website he says, “Reaching 50 as a Motherwell player is beyond anything I thought I would ever get to in my career. I feel a lot of satisfaction in the achievement because I feel I have really earned them and my dedication has paid off. It’s not been easy and at times it has been frustrating but in the end it has all been worth it.
Eventually when I sit down and look back I’ll be proud and have memories that will live with me forever.”
Classic Craigan
Cragain (34) first signed on at Fir Park in 1994 when Alex McLeish gave the promising 18 year old a move from Bangor. He was to stay until 2000 and then joined Partick Thistle where he was to earn his first three caps. He helped the Firhill side to promotion and played well over a hundred times for them.
Terry Butcher brought him back to Motherwell (much to the annoyance of Thistle as we were in interim administration at the time) and he became a fixture in the centre of our defence.
His international highlights include a wins against England in 2005 and against Spain in 2006. He was given the captain’s armband in the NI tour of the Americas last year and later led his team to an impressive win in Slovenia in the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.
Records are made to be broken but it is difficult to see how Stephen’s fifty caps while at Motherwell will be beaten. He faced Scotland in 2008 in a friendly ahead of the World Cup qualifiers and on that occasion he faced team-mate McFadden in a 0-0 draw at Hampden.
It is a tremendous achievement and we wish him many more victories for Northern Ireland (though not against Scotland tonight!).