1,500-up! Cobblers super supporter Lee Geary reaches remarkable match milestone at Grimsby Town

To do so takes huge commitment, effort, a large chunk of money, a little bit of luck with avoiding illness, as well as any other curveball that everyday life may throw at you along the way.

But for Cobblers super fan Lee Geary, 'completing a season' is something of a walk in the park, because he has done just that for an incredible 27 full campaigns in a row - with number 28 just a few games away!

It is a remarkable show of commitment and loyalty by the 56-year-old, who on Saturday at Grimsby Town chalked up his 1,500th consecutive competitive match of following the Cobblers 'over land and sea'.

The last time Town played a competitive match and Geary wasn't there to see it was on Tuesday, April 28, 1992, and the Cobblers were 2-1 winners at Hereford United in the old Football League fourth division, with Mickey Bell scoring both goals.

It was the final game of another underwhelming season for Town, who finished that campaign 16th in the bottom tier, having gone through the torrid financial turmoil of going into administration just a few months earlier.

It was a period that was one of the lowest points in the club's history, and they would avoid relegation from the Football League by the skin of their teeth for the next two seasons, but that didn't deter Geary.

The opening day of the following season saw him travel to Gillingham to see a 3-2 win for the Cobblers at the Priestfield Stadium - and, remarkably, Geary has been to every Town game, home or away, near or far, ever since.

Yep, 28 years on from 'missing out by five minutes' on the coach for that midweek trip to Edgar Street, Geary has been in attendance for every single Cobblers match played in the Football League, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

And that's not all.

Geary, who was 28-years-old when he started on this run of consecutive games, has seen 100s more Cobblers matches as well, since first being taken to the old County Ground by his dad in the 1970s - and his run doesn't include the 100s of pre-season friendlies he has taken in since 1992 either.

He has even travelled abroad to Spain to take in a couple of pre-season tours.

Some would say he is a glutton for punishment, while others may even question the sanity of travelling thousands of miles in all weathers to watch the Cobblers over the years.

But for Geary, following Northampton Town is his great passion in life, and he admitted: "Once you're hooked, that's it."

Not even a broken foot, suffered back in 1998, stopped Geary from travelling to watching his heroes as he hobbled up the steps at Wigan Athletic's old Springfield Park ground on crutches.

On reaching the 1,500 match milestone at Blundell Park, Geary said: "It has certainly taken a long time.

"I was a fan because of my dad, and he used to take me to go and watch them through the 1970s, and I then went throughout the 1980s.

"To be honest, I only missed two or three games in the early 1990s, so I had a little run going then as well."

The fact Geary is self-employed has been a big factor in his achievement, as being his own boss allows him the flexibility when it comes to time off for those long midweek trips, and the 2pm leave time for a jaunt to Carlisle or Plymouth.

For the past 20 years or so, Geary's mode of transport for away games has been with the Cobblers Independent Supporters Club, and he said: "I go to every away match with the supporters club, and I have made some real friendships.

"My best mate, Andy Muddiman, I met him at the Cobblers in about 1984, and we still go to the games together now. We were at Grimsby on Saturday.

"On our bus, it is the same faces at every away match, and I have been going with them for 21 years and it is like a little family."

Anybody who has been to watch the Cobblers in recent seasons will be well aware that it is not a cheap thing to do, with the cost of match tickets, travel, food and drink all adding up.

The mind boggles at how much Geary has forked out over the past 1,500 matches, and he admitted: "I wouldn't like to add it all up when you think of the travel and tickets, and I also have every programme of the all of the games I have been to.

"They are down one side of the garage, and I also have every home programme from the 1969/70 season onwards!

"I have been collecting them over the years and from every game I have been to, but when I got off the coach at Grimsby on Saturday the programme seller only had five left in the box!

"Thankfully, I managed to get one."

Geary, who racked up his 1,000th consecutive game on a trip to Lincoln City back in 2010, admits there is not a lot of glamour involved with following the Cobblers, but that the good days, when they come along, make it all worth while.

"I think once you are hooked, then that's it," said Geary, whose brother Shane was on the Town books as a teenager in the mid-1980s, although he didn't make a first team appearance, with two unused substitute appearances at Blackpool and Darlington as close as he got.

"I can get home from a bad game and I don't speak for a little while, and I fall out with football at that point - until we play again! And thinking about that next game gets me going.

"It was brilliant at Grimbsy on Saturday (where the Cobblers won 3-0), I really enjoyed it, and it is trips like that which make it all worthwhile.

"All these supporters of Premier League teams get success or whatever, but we don't very often at the Cobblers.

"So when we do it is brilliant, like going to Wembley and winning in 1997, and beating Shrewsbury away (fighting back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and avoid relegation) in 1993.

"They are the sort of games that bring it to you, and then you do get games like Cheltenham away last week (the Cobblers lost 2-1), but that's when you just have to think of the top games you've seen, that's how I like it."

For home games. Geary has sat in the same seat behind the goal in the north stand since Sixfields opened in October, 1994, and he enjoys that experience, but he admits he misses the club's former home.

"I do miss the County Ground and the Hotel End, it was all about the atmosphere there, it's not the same at Sixfields," said Geary, who now lives in Kislingbury, but grew up in the Headlands area of Northampton.

"I sit in the north stand, and have had the same seat since the stadium opened, and my wife is a season ticket holder now, along with my two lads (Nick and Jason).

"It is a bit of a family thing, and my wife Trish comes to some away games as well, she just doesn't like the long trips!"

Over the course of his 1,500 consecutive matches, Geary has seen hundreds of players turn out in the claret and white (as well as yellow, black, orange, pink and even blue), and watched teams managed by a total of 20 different 'permanent' managers, from Phil Chard who was in charge of the first, up to current boss Keith Curle.

His all-time favourite player is striker Trevor Morley from the 1986/87 fourth division title-winning team, and he admits that Graham Carr's men from that season are the best he has seen - just.

"Graham Carr's team just edged the Chris Wilder team of 2016 for me," said Geary..

"The thing with Carr's team, was even if they went 2-0 down, they could come back and win it - and I was only a young lad then!"

He may not be quite such a young lad now of course, but at 56 there is plenty of life in his supporting legs yet, and Geary is already setting sights on his next landmark for successive games - the big 2,000!

"Some seasons the team might play 50 or more games, but other years they might get knocked out of the cups and it is 48 or 49 games," he said.

"When you are doing it you don't realise the milestones, you just keep going, and I have all the games I have been to written down so I can look it up.

"So I will keep going, and I reckon to get through another 500 games will take me about 10 years."

I for one, would not bet against Lee doing just that.