SEAN Clohessy will set a new club record when he lines up for Southend United against Morecambe at Roots Hall on Saturday.

The reliable right-back will be making his 59th appearance of the season.

And that will be more than any other Shrimpers player has ever managed before in the same campaign.

“It’s always pleasing to get a club record, whatever it is, so hopefully I’ll be able to play at the weekend and beat the current best,” said Clohessy, 26.

“It’s been a long season and it’s good to have got that number of games, but I feel as though I could carry on if I had to as well, so it’s a shame the season is ending.”

Clohessy’s latest appearance will see him break a club record shared by Leon Cort, Damon Searle and Carl Pettefer, who all played 58 times in a season.

Searle played his impressive amount of matches during the 2000/01 campaign, Cort in 2003/04 and Pettefer in 2004/05.

But Clohessy is now firmly established in the current Shrimpers side and has missed just one match in the space of two seasons.

That came against AFC Wimbledon last season when he served a one-match suspension after being sent off at Bradford City.

And that statistic still frustrates the former Arsenal trainee.

“It was disappointing because I was on something like 96 consecutive appearances and wanted to try and get to 100,” said the defender.

“However, missing only one game in that amount of time isn’t bad going, so I can’t complain too much.”

Clohessy has had no such problems this time around and his record-breaking appearance will come just four days after being voted Blues’ player of the year by the Shrimpers Trust.

The right-back is also a leading contender to win the supporters’ player of the year award, which will be announced before kick off on Saturday.

But he is taking nothing for granted.

“It was very nice to win the Shrimpers Trust’s award, but I won that last year and then didn’t win the fans’ one, so it might be the same again this year,” said Clohessy.

“When it comes to how I’ve played, I’m my own worst critic and I know when I’ve done well or not, but it’s nice when other people recognise your performances.”

Despite his fine form and record number of appearances though, Clohessy is still not fully satisfied as he feels Southend should be far higher than 11th in the League Two table.

“We haven’t been good enough this season,” said the defender.

“We knew the three games we had at home against the bottom teams were going to be important and we didn’t do well enough in them.

“We got one point from nine and if we had managed even four then we would still be in with a chance of the play-offs.

“But we have one game to go now and we want to win it to end the season on a high.”