Twenty-One year old Stuart Howson joined Chesterfield from Blackburn Rovers in February this year and since then he's the only Spireite who's been on the pitch for every minute of every subsequent League match, that's 27 games on the trot for the central defender, not bad for someone whose experience prior to his move here was limited to Rovers Youth team and Reserves plus a stint in Australia on loan to Sydney based Northern Spirit.

Born in Chorley, Lancashire, on 30th September 1981, Stuart joined Rovers as a Scholar, turning pro in the summer of 1999 when the Ewood Park Manager was Brian Kidd. Rovers had a huge amount of professionals on the books, well over fifty at that time, including ex Spireite Kevin Davies, soon to return to Southampton and Ben Burgess, now at Stockport County and last season on loan at Brentford. Senior professionals included £17 million buy from Everton, Craig Short, £15m purchase from Manchester United John Curtis plus the likes of Jason Wilcox, Nathan Blake, Lee Carsley, Christian Dailly, Garry Flitcroft, Keith Gillespie, Matt Jansen, Jason McAteer and Ashley Ward, so first team spots were always going to be at a premium for any youngsters.

Rovers Reserves did well in 1999-2000, finishing in 3rd place in the FA Premier Reserve League and the Under 19's won their Group in the Academy, then they beat Ipswich and Aston Villa in the play-offs before going out to eventual winners West Ham United.  In 2000-01, Rovers reserves finished 4th in the Reserve League in which Stuart was a regular whilst last season the reserves were midtable.

In the Spring and Summer of 2001, Rovers loaned Stuart to Northern Spirit and he played 14 games for them, scoring one goal. Also in Australia was Ben Burgess and the two played together for the struggling Spirit side. In Stuart's 14 games, his side won just twice, both away from their North Sydney Oval Ground, at Football Kingz, 2-1 (Burgess scored both goals) and 4-2 at Newcastle United of all places!

Howson's goal came when his side were 3-0 down at home to Melbourne Knights, it ended 4-1 to the visitors and 3119 people saw the game that took place on 30th March. He did bag another goal, an own goal, in a 3-2 loss against Adelaide Force. The report on the match stated, "The Force broke through in the 28th minute via an own goal by Stuart Howson. Ante Kovacevic dashed down the left wing and attemped to cross a ball to Turnbrige. In an attempt to defuse the cross, Howson slid to intercept but only succeeded in placing the ball in the top right hand corner leaving Perosh no chance". Sounds a stunner!

Spirit's worst moment when Stuart was there? Probably being 2-0 up, away, at South Melbourne who were unbeaten on their home patch, but the hosts came back with a vengeance to win 6-2!

Dave Rushbury saw Stuart performing for Blackburn reserves in February and quickly made a move to bring him to Saltergate. He attended the 2-2 draw with Northampton Town prior to signing on the following Monday and he instantly n=made his debut at Swindon Town on the Tuesday night, replacing the injured Rob Edwards, playing at the back alongside Ian Breckin and Steve Payne. He looked as though he'd played in a myriad of League games and has since been a permanent fixture in the side, occasionally having a less than convincing game but on the whole, more than worth his place in the side.

Scored his first goal for the Club in the penultimate game of last season, the disappointing 3-1 loss at Bournemouth, he got his first Worthington Man of the Match award for an outstanding performance in the 1-0 win over Stockport County, he made the Nationwide Team of the Week for that together with the 1-0 win at Plymouth Argyle four days later and in the last home game he bagged his first Saltergate goal, an "in off the thigh" shot from 4 yards, but in the 85th minute and it was the only goal of the game.