Which footballer played the fewest games to earn a testimonial?

“What are the fewest number of appearances for a club to have resulted in a testimonial? Must be a back-up goalkeeper surely?” tweets SixStarsUK.

The time-honoured tradition of the testimonial is usually reserved for players who have reached a decade at a particular club, but not always.

“Norman Clarke made just four league and one League Cup appearance for Sunderland in the 1962-3 season before injury cut his career short aged 21,” writes John Briggs. “He was awarded a testimonial on 28 September 1966 when 11,000-plus spectators watched a 6-6 draw against a ‘Charlton’s XI’ (Jimmy Montgomery playing on the wing for Sunderland and scored two, Jack Charlton played in goal). Clarke returned to Ireland where he continued playing for Ballymena United and later scouted for Liverpool.”

A career-ending injury also led to John O’Neill being granted a testimonial with Norwich, despite playing little over half an hour for the club.

“John O’Neill, the Northern Irish centre-half, suffered a career-ending injury on his City debut in 1987 (after a decade at Leicester and a short spell at QPR),” writes Roger Whittaker. “Norwich gave him a testimonial, even though he only played 34 minutes for them before having his knee rearranged by John Fashanu.” Gary Lineker, then at Barcelona, scored a hat-trick in an 8-2 victory for O’Neill’s Select XI.

Fashanu later agreed to pay £70,000 in an out-of-court settlement after a high-profile court case in 1994 (during which O’Neill’s expert witness was Ken Aston, referee for Italy and Chile’s notorious “Battle of Santiago” at the 1962 World Cup), though O’Neill was left with £150,000 of legal costs.

Finally, here’s Stephen Curnow. “I accept that non-playing staff are rather against the spirit of the