'Rare' Danny Houghton quality praised after hooker breaks latest Hull FC milestone

Simon Grix has paid tribute to Danny Houghton after the Hull FC hooker became the club's fourth highest ever appearance maker. Houghton overtook another famous Black and Whites number nine in Tommy Harris with his appearance against London Broncos last Sunday afternoon, with just three players now ahead of him.

Since debuting way back in 2007, Houghton has now played 446 times for the Black and Whites, with the 35-year-old just five appearances behind Harold Bowman (451) in third place. He is 13 appearances behind second place Mick Scott (459), with Ned Rogers in first place on 499.

Throughout history, there has been some misconceptions with Rogers, who was believed to have made 500 appearances but the club have recently confirmed his total stands at 499. Hull, meanwhile, have 16 games left of the 2024 season, with Houghton needing to feature in 14 of them to get second spot.

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Grix, who played against Houghton in his playing days at Warrington Wolves, says it's a 'special' thing for a player to feature for just one club, with the interim head coach singling out the hooker's courage, who is playing into his 18th season as an Airlie Bird after following the club as a fan as far back as the Boulevard days.

"He's had a lot of pats on the back and accolades over the years," Grix said. "He's been great. He's been good for this group this year. I played against Danny many moons ago. He's not too different from the player he was then. He's probably a little bit more sore Monday to Thursday after his games then he would have been back then but he's certainly thrown his body around for this club. He's given it everything as a one club-man.

"It's a special thing. I don't think there will too many of them moving forward in this game. To get up that board when there was a time where seasons went on for longer and they played more games, it's harder to rack them games up, especially playing at nine in the middle of the field

"Let's be right, he's been smaller than everyone he's played with and if you've got the ball in front of them when they had the likes of Mark O'Meley and all these big fellas, and now Herman (Ese'ese), Frank (Pele), I know which one I'd be running at so he's put his body through it and he deserves every pat on the back he gets. He's a good bloke and I think he's still got plenty in his tank yet."

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