The Bristol Rovers History Group. |
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No 691. Robert John Quinn. 2002-04.
Born, 8.11.1976, Sidcup. 5’ 11”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 10.8.02 v Torquay United. Career: St Thomas More FC; 1991 Arsenal (trial); 1991 Crystal Palace (professional, 11.3.95) [18+5,1]; 8.7.98 Brentford (£40,000) [98+11,2]; 12.1.01 Oxford United (£75,000 with Andy Scott) [23+6,2]; 1.7.02 Bristol Rovers (free) [67+12,3]; 14.5.04 Stevenage Borough; 9.6.06 Gravesend and Northfleet (free); 25.5.07 AFC Wimbledon (free); 31.7.08 Welling United (free); 28.8.09 Cray Wanderers (free); July 2010 Sevenoaks Town (player-coach); 2011 Welling United Academy (head coach); 13.3.19 Crystal Palace (Under-16 coach; 13.8.21 Under-18 coach). Central midfielder Rob Quinn, who played under Ian Atkins at both Oxford and Rovers, spent two seasons at the Memorial Stadium between south-east sides. Eighteen goals in his second year as a trainee at Palace preceded a League début alongside Danny Boxall against Norwich City in 1996. Quinn was in the side that played at Wembley in May 1996 as Palace lost a play-off final 2-1 to Leicester City and scored his first goal after thirty minutes of a League Cup-tie against Bury the following September. With Boxall again and Ijah Anderson, he scored twice as Brentford were Division Three champions in 1998-99, but he was relegated back to Division Three with Oxford. He had missed a penalty in Brentford’s FA Cup-tie with Oldham Athletic, screened live on Sky TV, the Bees missing out on a potentially lucrative game against Chelsea in the next round. As his grandparents hailed from the Emerald Isle, his mother’s family being called Byrne, Quinn won five Republic of Ireland Under-21 caps and played once for their “B” side, as a tough-tackling midfield cog. Having played against Rovers for both Brentford and Oxford, he was known to Rovers supporters before his arrival. He scored in the games at Scunthorpe and Bury in the 2002-03 season and added another in the 2-2 draw at home to Macclesfield in August 2003. Moving from Emerson’s Green, where he had set up home, Rob Quinn added 52(+4) Conference games for Stevenage and a goal in a 3-3 draw at Scarborough, played in a play-off final against Carlisle which was lost and added 42 goalless matches with Northfleet, before joining Cray for their inaugural Isthmian Premier League campaign. Married to Kellie Bolton with a son Sammy and living in Sidcup, Quinn played at Wembley in an anniversary game, as AFC Wimbledon took on Corinthian Casuals. |
No 682. (James) Stephen James Quinn. 2001-02.
Born, 15.12.1974, Coventry. 6’ 1”; 12 st 10 lbs. Début: 23.3.02 v Exeter City. Career: 1.8.92 Birmingham City [1+3,0]; 5.7.93 Blackpool (£25,000) [128+23,36]; 4.3.94 Stockport County (loan) [0+1,0]; 20.2.98 West Bromwich Albion (£500,000) [85+29,9]; 1.12.01 Notts County (loan) [6,3]; 22.3.02 Bristol Rovers (loan) [6,1]; 26.4.02 Willem II [30+17,11]; 14.1.05 Sheffield Wednesday (free) [13+5,2]; 5.8.05 Peterborough United (free) [21+3,7]; 21.10.05 Bristol City (loan) [2+1,1]; 3.8.06 Northampton Town (free) [5+13,1]; 22.3.07 Scunthorpe United (loan); 2010 Princeton (coach); July 2012 Luton Town (coach); 2013 Central Jersey Spartans (coach); 3.12.15 Tranmere Rovers (coach); 20.7.18 Solihull Moors (first-team coach). In his day, James Quinn was a well-respected goal-scorer in Football League circles. Although never prolific, as his international tally testifies, and scoring only once in the 2000-01 campaign, he nonetheless registered the first strike anywhere in the country in the 1995-96 season, when he gave Blackpool the lead after just twelve seconds on the opening day in a 1-1 draw with Bristol City at Ashton Gate. Club form had earned a call-up to the Northern Ireland side and Quinn was to win 46 full caps, some of these alongside Kevin Wilson, who became Rovers’ assistant manager, and four international goals, against Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Serbia and Montenegro. He was in the side which defeated England 1-0 in Belfast in September 2005 and also registered a disallowed “goal” during the 1-1 draw in Barbados in May 2004. Twice he suffered the misfortune to be shown a red card whilst representing his country, in April 2003 for a foul on Greece’s Giorgios Karagounis and in May 2006 for a “reckless challenge” in a 2-0 defeat against Romania; both dismissals were in the 38th minute. Having played on seven occasions for Blackpool against Rovers, scoring one of their three first-half goals against Rovers in October 1995, Quinn joined in Rovers’ ultimately successful fight to remain in the Football League in the spring of 2002. Having hit the crossbar with a second-half header at Plymouth, his fifth-minute penalty, after Abdou Sall had been red-carded for a foul on James Thomas, paved the way to a crucial victory over eight-man Kidderminster that April to secure Football League status. Sent off for Blackpool against Bristol City in March 1997, he suffered the same fate fourteen minutes from the end of Willem II’s 1-0 home defeat against NAC Breda in November 2004. Making his Peterborough début in the side defeated 3-2 by Rovers in August 2005, he scored as a substitute on his Bristol City début in a 4-3 defeat at Oldham. Having passed his UEFA “A” coaching licence in 2009, James Quinn took up a coaching post in New Jersey but returned to Britain to coach in Conference play-off seasons at both Tranmere and Solihull. |
No 305. William Howard Radford. 1951-62.
Born, 8.9.1930, Abercynon. Died, 21.1.2022. Poole, Dorset. 5’ 9”; 10 st 9 lbs GK GK Début: 27.10.51 v Southend United Career: Penrhiwceiber; May 1951 Bristol Rovers (trial); August 1951 Bristol Rovers (£50) [245,0] (retired, 1962); 1966 Coalpit Heath. Though relatively short and slight of build for a goalkeeper, Howard Radford made up for this with courage, adeptness and flexibility. Rovers’ goalkeeper in eleven successive seasons, he played in the Third Division (South) title-winning campaign of 1952-53 and in all nine seasons in Division Two, retiring as the club was relegated in the spring of 1962. The third child and only son to Frank James Radford (1902-72) and Violet Thomas, Radford made his club début in a friendly against the touring Dutch side Racing Club Haarlem, after Rovers had agreed to pay a small fee to the Welsh side Penrhiwceiber for his services. Brave and skilful, he gave Rovers sterling service, facing many of the top forwards English football could offer during that era as Rovers enjoyed a prolonged spell towards the top end of the Second Division. He was in goal when, 3-2 ahead at half-time, Rovers crashed 8-3 at Blackburn in February 1955, with Tommy Briggs (1923-84) scoring all six second-half goals for a personal tally of seven in all. In February 1961, injury forced him off the field at Swansea, with wing-half Ray Mabbutt taking his place between the sticks. Working in his summer breaks as a groundsman at Clifton College, Radford was forced to retire with a knee injury, although he re-emerged in 1966 as a wing-half for Coalpit Heath and once scored a hat-trick with his weaker left foot in a local cup semi-final. He ran the Checkers public house in Old Market from 1962, the Ring o’ Bells in Coalpit Heath from 1963 for four years and, from 1967 to 1979, the Bishop Lacey Inn at Chudleigh in Devon; he also worked for the Home Farm Trust, helping those with learning difficulties, was a security guard, drove a bread lorry and delivered bananas. A committee member of the Bristol and South-West Sea Angling Federation, he was a steward for the Conservative Club in Chudleigh and captained Chudleigh cricket team for many years as a wicketkeeper and a batsman with a top score of 95. Married in 1953 to Beryl Penton with four children, thirteen grandchildren and a great-grandchild, he later lived in Chudleigh with his second wife, Shirley. It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of former Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Howard Radford, who passed away on Friday 21st January-2022 at the age of 91. Howard was a link with the halcyon days of the 1950’s, when Rovers were playing in the second tier of English football. Following his league debut for the club in October 1951, against Southend United, he appeared in another 244 league games until his retirement in 1962. Howard had been hospitalised for a long spell after suffering a major stroke in October of last year, but he was discharged just before Christmas and stayed with his daughter Lisa who continued to care for him until the time of his death. Bristol Rovers Former Players Association (BRFPA) contributed the sum of £250 towards the cost of a recliner chair for Howard, a gesture that was greatly appreciated by his family. Howard’s son Gary contacted BRFPA Mo Bell with the sad news of Howard’s passing and said; ‘I’m so sorry to have to let you know that Dad passed away last night at 10.10pm. He was at Lisa’s, where he wanted to be, and passed peacefully in her arms. ‘Another legend gone, and we will all miss him greatly. Thanks for your concern over the last few months and for your kind donation for his chair.’ A big supporter of the club and of the BRFPA, Howard was the 305th player to make his Rovers league debut and he appeared in 10 games as the side won the Third Division (South) title in 1952/53. On his retirement Howard was mine host at The Chequers public house in Old Market and then the Ring o’ Bells in Coalpit Heath. From 1967 – 1979 he ran the Bishops Lacey Inn in Chudleigh, Devon and he also worked for the Home Farm Trust, as a security guard and as a lorry driver. A keen cricketer who also enjoyed sea fishing, Howard attended the BRFPA Dinner in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. He was a true gentleman and very proud of the time he spent as a professional footballer with Bristol Rovers. All connected with Bristol Rovers Supporters Club, the BRFPA and Bristol Rovers History Group send their condolences to Howard’s family and friends at this sad time. Keith Brookman. |
No 605. (Tom) Mahan William Thomas Ramasut. 1996-98.
Born, 30.8.1977, Cardiff. 5’ 10”; 11 st. Début: 26.10.96 v Bury. Career: 8.9.90 Warminster School; 1990 Bristol Rovers (schoolboy); 1991 Norwich City (professional, 1.8.95); 8.8.96 Bristol Rovers (professional, 12.9.96) [30+12,6]; 3.8.98 Walsall (trial); 21.8.98 Cardiff City (trial); 24,10,98 Merthyr Tydfil (trial); 1.11.98 Merthyr Tydfil; February 2000 Llanelli; July 2000 Haverfordwest County; 8.1.01 Bristol Rovers (trial); August 2001 Merthyr Tydfil; December 2001 Barry Town; 8.8.03 Carmarthen Town; 19.9.03 Bath City (free); 7.11.03 Aylesbury United (trial); 15.1.04 Queen’s Park Rangers (trial); July 2006 Carmarthen Town; 5.9.07 Haverfordwest County; August 2009 Aberaman Athletic; January 2010 Haverfordwest County; July 2011 Barry Town; November 2011 Bridgend Town (coach); June 2013 Cambrian and Clydach Vale (coach, to 22.10.14); Cardiff City (Academy Head of Coaching; 24.10.21-12.11.21 joint acting manager; 18.9.22 acting assistant manager; 12.11.22 assistant manager). Following an impressive run in the reserves, Tom Ramasut, Welsh-born with a Thai father, broke into Rovers’ side in the autumn of 1996 at Gigg Lane, where Rovers had not won since 1956, and made his first full appearance as Rovers defeated divisional leaders Brentford a week later. “The closest thing I have seen to Micky Barrett yet” (Ian Holloway), Ramasut represented Wales at Under-15, -16, -18 level and secured two caps at Under-21 level against Holland and Belgium, before playing for Wales B against Scotland in March 1998, when he played alongside David Pritchard in a 4-0 defeat at Cumbernauld. Back in 1985, when London itself boasted just five Thai restaurants, Noi Ramasut from Bangkok and his Welsh-born wife Arlene Patricia Thomas established the Thai House Restaurant in Cardiff; Tom was the youngest of their three children, one sister Tamsin working in catering and the other, Catryn, running a production company which embraces Welsh language and culture. Having scored eight times in seventeen games at Warminster School, he had made his début for Rovers reserves against Chelsea in September 1996 and scored against Watford reserves three days before his League bow. His through ball to Justin Skinner provided the sixtieth-minute goal against Millwall in April 1997 which ensured Rovers’ survival that campaign in Division Two. Young Player of the Year in 1997-98 as Rovers reached the play-offs, Ramasut then enjoyed many years in Welsh football. A Merthyr début against Cambridge City in October 1998 led to a goal against Bath City in the Doctor Martens Cup. One goal in eight games for Llanelli was followed by ten in 85(+3) at Haverfordwest, thirteen in 49(+3) at Barry and twenty in 116(+1) at Carmarthen. Ramasut was a Welsh Cup winner in 2002, Barry defeating Bangor City 4-1 in the final and played in two Champions League matches, Barry being double winners in successive years. On his Aylesbury début against Heybridge Swifts in November 2003, the Rovers striker Alvin Bubb came on as a substitute to score both goals in a 2-1 victory. Ramasut, a fluent Welsh speaker, was a co-founder of the popular Cardiff music venue Gwdihw, until its closure in 2018. |
No 708. Andrew Victor Rammell. 2002-04.
Born, 10.2.1967, Nuneaton. 5’ 11”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 29.3.03 v Lincoln City. Career: 1985 Atherstone Town (professional, 1.8.88); 26.9.89 Manchester United (£40,000); 14.9.90 Barnsley (£100,000) [149+36,44]; 22.2.96 Southend United (free) [50+19,13]; 1.7.98 Walsall (free) [60+9,23]; 7.9.00 Wycombe Wanderers (£75,000) [69+5,25]; 26.3.03 Bristol Rovers (free) [8+4,6]; 28.6.04 Forest Green Rovers (trial); 27.7.04 Nuneaton Griff (free). Requiring urgent action to prevent the club slipping out of League football, Rovers travelled to Oxford in April 2003 and emerged with an essential 1-0 victory, veteran striker Andy Rammell striking home from close range. This single action has earned him, to a degree, cult status, amongst Rovers’ hardy supporters. In fact, “Rambo” had enjoyed an extensive and successful career elsewhere and his brief cameo appearance in the quartered shirts represented the Indian summer of his long career. Indeed the two headers he scored as a substitute in Rovers’ 4-0 victory over Darlington at the Reynolds Arena were followed by no games whatsoever for Nuneaton Griff and he retired to work for the Post Office in Kidderminster and, until 2011, in Bournemouth to be closer to his father, Albert. The son of Albert Rammell senior (1908-88) and Bristol-born Ivy May Scammell (1907-61), Albert Rammell had married Pauline Dewis and, after two daughters, Andy was their only son. A keen golfer, Andy Rammell and his wife Wendy Taylor have two children, Liam and Kayleigh, and four grandchildren. On Manchester United’s books when Lee Martin’s goal secured the FA Cup in 1990, Rammell played alongside household names such as Bryan Robson and Neil Webb for United reserves and scored one of the goals as Rovers crashed 5-1 at home to Barnsley at Twerton Park in November 1992. A former Debenham’s trainee who then worked a sixty-hour weekly shift at an iron foundry, he made his name at Oakwell, was relegated from Division One at Southend and was Ray Graydon’s first signing at Walsall, who were promoted and relegated in his two-year stay. Sent off against Rovers in September 2000, one of three red cards accrued in a Wycombe shirt, Rammell was Wanderers’ top scorer in 2001-02, even with losing three months to a groin injury, and played in the 2001 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Thereafter came the burst of goals which earned his enduring reputation in the Bristol Rovers story, a rush of four strikes in three games over Easter 2003 ensuring that the Pirates retained their long-standing Football League status. |
No 441. Paul Randall. 1977-79 and 1981-86.
Born, 16.2.1958, Liverpool. 5’ 11”; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 20.8.77 v Cardiff City. Career: Mid-Somerset Schools; 1974 Bristol Rovers (apprentice); Bristol City (trial); Manchester City (trial); Cardiff City (trial); 16.8.74 Glastonbury; 26.12.76 Frome Town; 12.8.77 Bristol Rovers (free); 28.12.78 Stoke City (£180,000) [38+8,7]; 29.1.81 Bristol Rovers (£50,000) [218+22,94]; 7.3.86 Yeovil Town (£5,000); 4.5.89 Bath City (£1,000); 14.7.93 Weymouth (free); 24.11.93 Clevedon Town; 1994 Welton Rovers; September 1994 Glastonbury; 14.6.95 Street: 1998 Wells City (manager, 2000; president, 2005). Real goal-scoring gems are difficult to uncover, but Rovers struck gold when they signed Paul Randall in 1977. Four goals in a pre-season friendly against Trowbridge, after he had impressed for George Petherbridge’s Glastonbury side and appeared for Frome against the Pirates, encouraged the club to throw him into the League side. A goal on his début persuaded the teenager to give up his job as a trainee supermarket manager and the goals began to flow. A brace in an exciting FA Cup victory over Southampton in January 1978 sealed his reputation as the fans’ favourite and he followed this up with hat-tricks in the 4-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers in October 1978 and, the following month, the astonishing 5-5 draw with table-topping Charlton Athletic. Randall had all the required attributes for popularity: skill, speed, tenacity, persistence, close control, enthusiasm and the unnerving knack of being apparently able to score at will. The son of a former Everton and Aldershot reserve player, Ken Randall, and his wife June Bergner, he was immensely popular in the blue half of Bristol. Top scorer in his first season at Eastville with twenty League goals, it came as no surprise when larger clubs came sniffing and Randall was off to Stoke City over Christmas 1978. Rovers were keen to sign their star name back and he duly returned, adding goals with alarming regularity, scoring a first-minute goal against Orient in March 1983 and a hat-trick against Newcastle United that December in Rovers’ centenary game. A keen cricketer and tennis player, he represented the Football Association on one occasion and later made his name in non-league circles too. At Yeovil, he helped the Glovers secure the AC Delco Cup and win the Beazer Homes League in 1987-88 after being runners-up twelve months earlier, scoring five goals in the 6-1 thumping of Heavitree United on New Year’s Day 1987. In all, he scored fifty-seven goals in 121(+30) League games at Huish Park, 73(+29) games and 31 goals coming at fifth-tier level. 51 goals in his first season with Bath, thirty-five of them in the Southern League, overtook a club record held by Charlie “Cannonball” Fleming (1927-97) and he added 112 goals in 194(+18) matches with the Romans, a hat-trick against Dorchester Town in February 1990 amongst this tally, an overall total which constituted a club record equalled by Martin Paul in 2007-08. He was Bath’s Player of the Year for 1990-91 and his goal against Wealdstone the previous campaign was voted HTV Goal of the Month for January 1990. Randall was sent off playing for Weymouth against Elmore in the FA Cup in September 1993. Continuing playing past his fortieth birthday, Randall was in the Street side which lost to Nailsea United in the Somerset Senior League Cup Final of May 1996 and played for them against Rovers in a pre-season friendly three months later, having contributed 34 goals in the 1995-96 campaign and contributed eight goals when Wells City defeated Weston St John by the remarkable score of 19-9 in September 1998. Later a groundsman at Tor Leisure Centre until 1992, he has worked for twenty years as a driver for a Somerset-based pharmaceutical company and lives in Wells with his Italian-born wife Filomena Esposito; their children Mark and Kelly having represented Somerset at football and netball respectively and Mark Randall played his 500th match for Wells City in September 2016. |
No 233. James Raven. 1936-37.
Born. 29.3.1908, Nottingham. Died, 2.1.1965, Nottingham. 5’ 11”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 12.9.36 v Northampton Town. Career: August 1931 Notts County (trial); November 1931 Notts County (amateur); 1933 Folkestone (amateur); April 1934 Brentford (amateur) [1,0]; 22.4.36 Bristol Rovers (£975, including Bert Watson and Les Sullivan) (amateur) [7,0]; 6.8.37 Wrexham (professional, December 1937) [55,1]; August 1946 Ransome and Marles (trial); 1946 Nottingham Corinthians; Nottingham East End. As Brentford sailed towards the Second Division championship, right-half James Raven played in their February fixture against his home-town club, Nottingham Forest. He had also appeared in both Folkestone’s FA Cup-ties with Rovers in November 1933 and arrived at Eastville as part of a triple signing in April 1936. With first-team appearances restricted and sporadic, he helped the reserves retain the Western League in 1936-37, notably playing well in the matches against Nuneaton and Oakengates Town, but finding himself sent off in the game against Wellington in January 1937. A keen swimmer, Raven gave Wrexham able service for the final two seasons prior to World War Two, scoring his only League goal in the 2-1 win against Rochdale in March 1938 and played twice for the Robins in the unofficial 1945-46 campaign. Possibly the son of Herbert Raven and Sarah Ann Burton, it is known that James Raven worked for Nottingham Co-operative Dairy for twenty years, married Nellie Whiston (1908-69) in 1931 and had a son and a grand-daughter. |
No 499. Paul James Raynor. 1984-85.
Born, 29.4.1966, Nottingham. 6’; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 2.4.85 v Lincoln City. Career: Nottingham Forest (professional, 2.4.84) [3,0]; 28.3.85 Bristol Rovers (loan) [7+1,0]; 15.8.85 Huddersfield Town (free) [38+12,9]; 27.3.87 Swansea City [170+21,27]; 17.10.88 Wrexham (loan) [6,0]; 10.3.92 Cambridge United (free); 23.7.93 Preston North End (£36,000) [72+8,9]; 11.9.95 Cambridge United (exchange for Dean Barrick) [124+4,9]; 25.6.97 Guang Deong Wen Yuan (£20,000) [10,1]; February 1998 Orient [6+9,0]; August 1998 Stevenage Borough; September 1998 Kettering Town; July 1999 Ilkeston Town; 15.2.00 Boston United; 3.7.01 Hednesford Town (player-manager); 21.10.01 Gainsborough Trinity; 10.1.02 Ossett Albion; 29.3.02 King’s Lynn; 11.7.03 Harrogate Town (trial); 6.8.03 King’s Lynn; 17.2.04 Boston United (coach); 1.7.07 Crawley Town (assistant manager); 9.4.12 Rotherham United (assistant manager); 23.10.15 Leeds United (assistant manager); 16.11.16 Mansfield Town (assistant manager); 28.2.18 Peterborough United (assistant manager, to 26.1.19); 21.5.19 Gillingham (assistant manager, to 9.1.22); 16.3.22 Stevenage (assistant manager). On loan with Rovers when Geraint Williams had been sold to Derby County, midfielder Paul Raynor used a brief spell at Eastville as a stepping-stone to a successful career as player and coach. In so doing, he became the 500th player to appear for the side in the Football League. A long stint at Swansea included various games in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, in which tournament he scored in Athens against Panathinaikos in September 1989 and he also scored as the Swans won the Welsh Cup by defeating Kidderminster Harriers 5-0 in 1989 and Wrexham 2-0 in 1991. He then joined a growing contingent of players with Rovers connections at Cambridge, including Devon White, Robbie Turner, John Taylor and John Vaughan. Cambridge, for whom he played at Twerton Park over Easter 1993, were relegated along with Rovers from League One in 1993, and he was sent off that season on Valentine’s Day against Brentford. Raynor’s time at North End enabled him to play alongside a very young David Beckham and he also scored at Wembley when Preston played Wycombe in a play-off final in May 1994. Returning to Cambridge, he scored in the 5-2 defeat at Hereford in January 1996 in which Steve White scored four goals, and appeared in Cantonese football before playing alongside Justin Channing and Jason Harris at Orient. Sent off 28 minutes from the end of Kettering’s goalless draw at Woking in March 1999, he made his Ilkeston début as captain alongside Devon White in a 3-1 win at Merthyr and scored direct from a corner as the unfashionable Derbyshire side defeated Carlisle United 2-1 in an FA Cup shock in October 1999. Living at the time in Sheffield, he added 31(+3) Conference games and three goals at Boston before being replaced at Hednesford by the former Rovers player Kenny Hibbitt, one goal in nine matches with Ossett and, Player of the Year for 2002-03, appeared in 73(+3) League encounters without scoring whilst at King’s Lynn. The younger son of Bob Raynor (1940-2007), who played in goal for Halifax Town between 1965 and 1967, Paul’s mother Valerie Limb was the daughter of Alfred Limb and Florrie Beckworth of Nottingham; Florrie was the eldest of eleven children to a couple from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Albert Edward Beckworth (1896-1981) and Eliza Henson. Serving under Steve Evans at a succession of clubs, Raynor became part of the backroom staff as Crawley Town emerged from non-league football to become a force in the Football League and played a key rôle as Rotherham secured promotion from League Two and League One in successive seasons, before establishing themselves in second-tier football during the 2014-15 campaign. He was sent off when Peterborough visited Doncaster Rovers in September 2018. |
No 121. George Turnbull Reay. 1928-30.
Born, 14.1.1903, East Howden, Co Durham. Died, 15.8.1962, York. 5’ 10½”; 12 st. Début: 20.10.28 v Brentford. Career: Percy Main Amateurs; September 1922 South Shields [5,0]; August 1923 Blyth Spartans; October 1923 Reading [3,0]; July 1924 Kettering Town; 16.12.25 Raith Rovers (£700); 24.5.28 Bristol Rovers [67,9]; 1.7.30 Coventry City [12,3]; June 1931 Burton Town; 1934 Rushden Town; October 1934 Kettering Town; November 1934 Gresley Rovers (to December 1934). A pacey outside-right who “impressed with ball control, speed, centring and shooting, that surprised Rovers’ die-hard fans”, George Reay was a regular in the side for successive campaigns in the late 1920s. Noted for his “good work and accurate centring”, he scored the side’s opening two goals, after twenty and 55 minutes, as Rovers defeated Fulham 5-3 at Eastville in February 1929 and, later that season, gave Rovers a tenth-minute lead in the 1-1 draw with Watford. However, Reay’s League breakthrough had come at unfashionable South Shields where, having helped Percy Main win the Northern Amateur League in both 1920-21 and 1921-22, he made his Second Division début in March 1923 in a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. Five goals followed in 81 matches in all competitions for Kettering and a stint in Scotland began with a début in Raith’s 2-1 defeat against Partick Thistle before a 6,000 crowd at Firhill in December 1925. A regular for Raith for eighteen months, he scored in the 4-2 win over Arbroath in January 1927 with a fine solo dribble and shot, having contributed a cracking header, after creating the first goal, in a 2-0 win over Clydebank in February 1926. When Forfar Athletic were defeated 5-0 in March 1927, “the Rovers’ last goal was perhaps the best of the game, for Reay, racing down the wing, changed direction and cut in, beat two opponents and finished with a great drive which [Frank] Bridgeford never saw” (The Scotsman). Securing promotion from Division Two with a 6-3 win over East Stirling, Reay scored twice in the final game, a 3-0 win against Ayr United, yet bizarrely never made the team the following campaign in top-flight football. Fourth of five children to stone mason John George Reay (who was baptised in Heworth two days after Christmas 1857, the son of George Turnbull Reay [1833-62] and Annie Carr Bainbridge [1831-83]) and Mary Scott, who had married in 1898, George Reay married Laura Pennock (1901-64) in the autumn of 1926 and had a son John, who died young, and a second son Colin, who married Joyce Wright in Ipswich in 1955. George Reay, resident at 32 Eighth Avenue, Heworth, died in York County Hospital aged sixty-one, leaving £1,036 13s to his sister-in-law Edith Pennock (1914-86) and her husband Frank Oldfield Bottomley (1905-86). |
No 539. Andrew John Reece. 1987-93.
Born, 5.9.1962, Shrewsbury. 5’ 11”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 15.8.87 v Rotherham United. Career: Walsall (apprentice); 1980 Worcester City; 1983 Tamworth; 1984 Stafford Rangers; 1985 Willenhall Town; March 1986 Marstons FC; 1986 Dudley Town; 1986 Goodyear FC; 11.8.87 Bristol Rovers (free) [230+9,17]; 20.11.92 Walsall (loan); 12.8.93 Walsall (loan) [15,1]; 5.11.93 Hereford United (loan); 7.12.93 Hereford United (£12,000) [63+2,7]; 14.10.95 Midlands Police; 29.7.02 Grosvenor Park (player-coach); 2007 West Midlands Police (player-assistant manager); July 2011 Daventry Town (assistant manager); September 2012 Northampton Town (scout); 2017 Notts County (kit manager); 2020 Walsall (kit manager). A vital cog in midfield as Rovers built the side that would gain promotion from Division Three, Andy Reece was a defensive-minded, tough-tackling player. Having worked as a tyre manufacturer, he played in 41 Southern League games for Worcester and was almost twenty-five when he made his League début, yet added an assurance and degree of quality to the Rovers side. Successively strong performances and an unusually high goal tally of seven in the League in 1988-89 led towards the successful 1989-90 campaign, when Rovers secured promotion on a heady night at Twerton Park in May 1990 and sealed the Third Division championship three days later at Blackpool. Reece had missed just three games all season, a consequence of being sent off against Northampton Town, and appeared at Wembley in the Leyland Daf Cup Final, which was lost 2-1 to Tranmere Rovers. One facet of his play, a gritty, determined all-action approach, was epitomised by being required to miss out on the second-half of the home victory over Preston in September 1989 to have stitches inserted in a cut beneath his left eye and he was sent off at Northampton in March 1990 for retaliating to a bad tackle by Warren Donald. He was an ever-present in Rovers’ first season back in second-tier football and his departure coincided with the side’s relegation back to Division Three in the spring of 1993. A member of the Hereford side humiliated by Bath City at Twerton Park in an FA Cup-tie in December 1993 which they lost 2-1, Reece also played in the Bulls’ record League defeat, a 7-1 thrashing at Mansfield on Boxing Day 1996 and the side which won the Herefordshire Senior Cup Final of August 1995 by defeating Swindon Town 2-0. Having previously played 41 times in the Alliance Premier at each of Worcester and Willenhall without scoring and secured a Southern League Midland Division winner’s medal with Dudley Town, Reece returned to non-league football in 1995, only to be sent off on his début for the Midlands Police. Working as a police officer, he represented the English Police XI and scored two penalties in one game for Walsall All-Stars against Bloxwich United Veterans in October 2009. He lives in Walsall with his wife Jane and they have two sons and a daughter. |
No 767. Charles Thomas Reece. 2007-12.
Born, 8.9.1988, Birmingham. 5’ 11”; 12 st 1 lb M Début: 29.12.07 v Carlisle United Career: Colron; Aston Villa (schoolboy); Bristol Rovers (professional, 16.5.07) [12+17,0]; 15.1.09 Solihull Moors; 20.20.11 Gloucester City (loan); 30.1.12 Tamworth (loan); 3.7.12 Worcester City (free); 25.6.13 Redditch United (free); 7.10.14 Rushall Olympic (free, to 7.5.15). Dynamic central midfielder Charlie Reece made a substitute appearance for Rovers over Christmas 2007 and then started the final game of the campaign at home to Hartlepool, in which Rovers scored twice in the first four minutes of each half to win 4-1. Reece was described as “quite superb” in the first-half of that game. Signed by David Mehew at Gloucester City, he played nine times, scoring once, and later appeared in 4(+3) Conference games for Tamworth, before he later joined blue-and-white-halved shirted Worcester City on the same day as Ben Hunt, playing for the Dragons in 27(+12) Conference North matches. Trained as a hairdresser, he worked in this career and for RNP Associates, a steel company, as a Sales Executive in the Midlands, before becoming Business Development Manager at Triple Fast Middle East Ltd, based in the United Arab Emirates. |
No 777. Carl Anthony Regan. 2009-11.
Born, 9.9.1980, Liverpool. 6’; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 8.8.09 v Orient. Career: 1.8.97 Everton; 15.6.00 Barnsley (£20,000) [31+6,0]; 17.8.02 Hull City (loan); 1.11.02 Hull City (free) [33+5,0]; 20.12.03 Chester City (loan); 2004 Droylsden (loan); 18.3.05 Chester City (free) [43+4,0]; 21.6.06 Macclesfield Town (free) [54+4,2]; 31.1.08 MK Dons (free) [32+4,1]; 5.6.09 Bristol Rovers (free) [51+5,0]; 21.2.11 Notts County (trial); 18.7.11 Shrewsbury Town (trial); 28.7.11 Shrewsbury Town (free) [12+1,0]; 11.8.12 Notts County (free) [9+2,0]; 13.1.13 Bury (free) [9+1,0] (released, 22.6.14). With Paul Ince at Macclesfield, MK Dons and Notts County, right-back Carl Regan added a certain degree of tenacity to a Rovers side heading towards relegation to League Two in 2010-11. Sent off on his League début for Barnsley against Norwich in August 2000, after just eighteen minutes, and receiving another red card at Sheffield Wednesday in October 2001, Regan had previously been an FA Youth Cup winner with Everton in 1998. He had opposed Rovers for Hull, Chester, Macclesfield and MK Dons prior to joining and, at MK Dons, had helped the side secure the League Two championship in 2007-08 and reach the League One play-offs twelve months later. Regan’s two League goals were for Macclesfield at home to Boston in November 2006 and for Dons at Lincoln in April 2008. Tenacious and solid in the tackle, Regan was sent off after 35 minutes of Rovers’ 3-0 defeat at home to Orient in November 2010 for what was universally accepted as a terrible foul and barely made the side again. Subsequently, he played alongside Joe Jacobson and Mark Wright in the Shrewsbury side which defeated Rovers 1-0 in February 2012 and gained promotion that campaign to League One; he suffered relegation to the basement division with Bury in April 2013. |
No 910. Gavin Reilly. 2018-20.
Born, 10.5.1993, Dumfries. 5' 10"; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 4.8.18 v Peterborough United. Career: Queen of the South (youth; 1.7.10 professional); 1.8.10 Gretna 2008 (loan); 12.8.14 Brentford (trial); 23.6.15 Heart of Midlothian (free) [11+17,4]; 13.6.16 Dunfermline Athletic (loan) [11+11,1]; 12.6.17 St Mirren (free) [27+8,11]; 3.7.18 Bristol Rovers (free) [17+17,4]; 1.8.19 Cheltenham Town (loan) [18+3,4]; 4.8.20 Carlisle United (free) [3+13,0]; 5.1.21 Livingston (free) [3+3,0]; 30.8.21 Morton (loan) [27+2,5]; 25.5.22 Queen of the South (free) [69+42,39]. Turning down Sunderland, Scottish striker Gavin Reilly joined Rovers ahead of the 2018-19 season. Barely used at first, he scored his first goal with a low volleyed shot, which proved the first of three Rovers goals in twenty minutes, when Coventry City visited The Mem in September 2018. More importantly, as Rovers fought a relegation battle that campaign, his deft headed equaliser at Plymouth in stoppage time earned a hugely valuable point. The following pre-season started with a 10-1 win at Yate Town, Reilly coming off the bench to claim an impressive nine-minute hat-trick. He had initially made his name at his home-town club, Queen of the South, where he had scored as a late substitute in his first appearance as a seventeen-year-old, in a 5-1 Scottish League Cup victory over Dumbarton in July 2010. After a loan spell in the East of Scotland League, he had registered a second-half hat-trick in a 6-0 win against Arbroath in September 2012 and scored fourteen League goals in 2014-15, all in separate fixtures. A penalty in the shoot-out helped secure the 2013 Challenge Cup, as Partick Thistle were beaten on penalties and his fourteen League goals in 2014-15 came in separate fixtures. His first Hearts goal came against Motherwell but he was sent off against Kilmarnock, after aiming a kick at fellow substitute Steven Smith. Partnering Nicky Clark up front under manager Allan Johnston at both Queen of the South and Dunfermline, he helped respective sides gain promotion in 2012-13, 2016-17 and 2017-18, thus arriving at The Mem on a hat-trick. His only goal for Dunfermline came against Hibernian in August 2016. During the 2017-18 side, alongside David Clarkson at St Mirren, he scored League doubles against four clubs, including his former side Queen of the South, and scored four first-half goals as Lothian Thistle were put to the sword 7-1 in a Scottish Cup-tie in November 2017. His goalscoring, twenty-two in all competitions that campaign, caused one supporter to honour a commitment to have a tattoo of him, once he had passed twenty goals. His girlfriend Chelsea Carruthers gave birth to their first child, Gracie, in May 2018. Moving back north of the border, he played the final twenty-five minutes of the Scottish League Cup Final in February 2021, Livi losing 1-0 to St Johnstone and scored twice when Morton beat Ayr United 2-0 in January 2022. |
No 819. Scott David Rendell. 2011-12.
Born, 21.10.1986, Ashford, Surrey. 6’; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 8.10.11 v Oxford United. Career: Staines Albion; 2002 Reading (trainee); 11.8.03 Aldershot Town; 1.8.05 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 1.8.06 Crawley Town (free); November 2006 Hayes (loan); 1.8.07 Cambridge United (free); 18.2.08 Peterborough United (loan); 22.5.08 Peterborough United (£115,000) [5+8,4]; 17.10.08 Yeovil Town (loan) [5,0]; 18.11.06 Cambridge United (loan); 28.7.09 Torquay United (loan) [28+7,12]; 1.7.10 Wycombe Wanderers (free) [26+17,15]; 7.10.11 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4+1,0]; 31.1.12 Oxford United (loan) [15+3,3]; 21.6.12 Luton Town (free); 17.7.13 Torquay United (trial); 13.9.13 Woking (free); 24.6.16 Aldershot Town (free); 31.5.19 Eastleigh (free); 7.10.20 Maidstone United (free); 14.8.21 Havant and Waterlooville (free); 25.6.22 AFC Totton (free). Paul Buckle signed utility striker Scott Rendell for both Luton and Rovers, for whom he made his League début in a 3-0 defeat against his future club. Goalless at The Mem, Rendell returned to mother club Wycombe in time to play in their shock 2-0 FA Cup defeat at non-league Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup in November 2011. A long career outside the Football League had seen him make his Aldershot début as a late substitute for Tim Sills in a 2-0 defeat at York in February 2005, his 1(+5) Conference games preceding two goals in 8(+8) Conference matches at Forest Green, scoring the only goal on his début against Cambridge United in August 2005 in a side which also included Rovers names in Ryan Clarke, Jon Beswetherick and Lewis Haldane. This was Forest Green’s first goal as a professional side. His eleven goals in 26(+16) Conference games for Crawley included a hat-trick in the 4-0 victory over Morecambe in October 2006 and, after eight games at Hayes, he scored 32 goals in 48(+8) Conference matches in two spells with Cambridge. Top scorer with Wycombe, he added the 119th-minute winning goal in Cambridge’s Conference play-off semi-final against Stevenage in 2009. Rendell scored Peterborough’s fifth goal against Rovers in League One in September 2008, added a hat-trick in the final thirty-two minutes when Rovers defeated Wycombe 6-3 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Adams Park in November 2010, Jo Kuffour also scoring three goals in that game, and was in the Oxford side which played Rovers in the basement division in February 2012. Scott Rendell and his partner Sam experienced the tragedy of losing their young son Alfie on Christmas Eve 2010, after which Scott wore football boots with his son’s name inscribed, these boots scoring the goal which ensured Wycombe’s promotion at the end of that season. Dropping into Conference football, where he scored eight times in 28(+8) fixtures, Rendell appeared as a late substitute for the Luton side which knocked Wolves, three divisions their superiors, out of the FA Cup in a shock result in January 2013; later that month it got even better, as Luton won away to Premier League Norwich 1-0 in the fourth round, thanks to Rendell’s close-range strike with just ten minutes remaining. He scored on his Woking début in a 2-2 draw at home to Tamworth, the first of forty-one in 71(+4) Conference matches. Twenty-four goals was an impressive tally the following campaign, amongst their number being four strikes as Dover Athletic were defeated 6-1 in August 2014 and a hat-trick in the 5-2 win at Southport, although he did not score in the two fixtures against Rovers that campaign. Sadly, he was injured during the first-half of the opening game of 2015-16, against Tranmere Rovers, and ruled out for the rest of the season. He returned to the fray in 2016-17, scoring a first-half hat-trick against Woking, his former side, in the Conference over Christmas 2016, 32 goals coming in 88(+26) Conference matches with Aldershot, who reached the play-offs only to lose over two legs to Tranmere Rovers. In February 2019 he was sent off five minutes from the end of Aldershot’s 1-0 victory away to Braintree Town and the Shots were relegated to Nationwide South that season. In November 2019 he completed a hat-trick in Eastleigh’s 4-2 Conference victory over Harrogate Town and he later scored five times in twelve National League South matches with Maidstone and three times in 15(+13) National League South fixtures for Havant. In September 2022 he scored twice as Totton won an extraordinary FA Cup-tie 9-2 away to Wincanton Town. Scott and Sam now live in Basingstoke, with son Finley and daughter Lottie. |
No 397. Trevor Charles Rhodes. 1968-69.
Born, 9.8.1948, Southend, Essex. 5’ 11”; 12 st 8 lbs. Début: 26.10.68 v Mansfield Town. Career: Southend Boys; September 1965 Arsenal; 6.8.66 Millwall (trial); September 1966 Millwall [4,0]; July 1968 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; 18.6.69 Bath City; 1970 Welton Rovers; 1976 Southmead United; 2.8.80 Radstock Town; 1981 Southmead United. Apparently a junior competitor at Wimbledon, wing-half Trevor Rhodes was an all-round sportsman who enjoyed a brief Football League career. A Millwall début as a substitute in their August 1966 friendly with Fulham, his short Second Division career at The Den was supplemented by an appearance in the 1967 Kent FA Challenge Cup Final, which was lost 3-2 to Charlton Athletic. He appeared for Rovers in a goalless draw at Mansfield and the 1-1 draw with Plymouth six months later, before scoring a hat-trick, including two penalties, for a Somerset League XI in their 5-2 win against the Bristol and District League in November 1971. He had earlier been in Arsenal’s youth side, his final appearance being when the Gunners defeated Sunderland in the 1966 FA Youth Cup Final; they also defeated West Ham United in the Southern Junior Floodlight Cup Final that summer. Trevor Rhodes is the elder of two children to Leonard Rhodes, the son of Edward Leyland Rhodes (1896-1956) and Florence Newton (1898-1948), and Vera Bridge, the daughter of Edward Charles Bridge (1883-1963) and Florence Matilda Squire (1890-1945). A company director at Jay Fasteners in Kingswood and living in Whitchurch, he was re-united with his first wife after his second wife had died of cancer. |
No 786. Eliot Allen Richards. 2009-14.
Born, 10.9.1991, Caerphilly. 5’ 9”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 20.2.10 v Gillingham. Career: Jubilee; July 2008 Bristol Rovers (free) [39+33,13]; 7.2.14 Exeter City (loan) [11+6,5]; 28.5.14 Tranmere Rovers (free) [9+4,1]; 2.2.15 Cheltenham Town (free) [6+3,1]; 30.12.15 Bath City (loan); 4.4.16 Tampa Bay Rowdies (free); 30.5.16 Bath City (free); 11.8.16 Weston-super-Mare (free); 21.10.16 Merthyr Tydfil (loan); 6.1.17 Merthyr Tydfil (free); 15.7.17 Gloucester City (free); 17.11.17 Hereford (free); 20.8.19 Merthyr Town (free); 10.9.20 Barnet (free; released, 7.6.21); 1.12.21 Merthyr Town (free); 31.8.22 Pontypridd United (free). Fast, mobile and with a great finish, Eliot Richards broke into Rovers’ League side during the 2009-10 season and was one bright hope during the relegation campaign that followed. Having scored for Rovers against Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup in 2008-09, he added eight goals in thirteen League games for the Under-18s prior to his League début, scoring twice in both the first two games of the 2009-10 season. A Newcastle United supporter from Bargoed, near Caerphilly, Richards made his first full start in January 2011, as manager-less and relegation-threatened Rovers led 2-0 inside eleven minutes only to lose and he added the club’s final League One goal, his first League strike being a late consolation in the final game of the campaign. Called up to play for Wales Under-19 against Northern Ireland in May 2010, Richards made the Wales Under-21 squad, was named Young Player of the Year in 2011-12 and, to a goal at Bradford City on his twentieth birthday and his brace as a substitute in the FA Cup at Totton in December 2011, became the fourth youngest player to complete a Football League hat-trick for Rovers, scoring after 46, 76 and 81 minutes of the 7-1 victory over Burton Albion in April 2012, aged twenty years 217 days. Out of favour for some of the 2012-13 season, Richards was unlucky to see his two well-taken goals at Wycombe in August 2012 ruled out when the match was abandoned. A late-season loan spell at Exeter in 2013-14, in an exchange deal involving Alan Gow, saw Richards add five goals to contribute towards the Grecians’ eventual League safety, this including a three-minute second-half brace in the 3-0 March victory over Fleetwood Town. Manager Rob Edwards’ first signing at Tranmere, he scored in the home defeat against his future club, Cheltenham Town, before his appearance against Rovers in an FA Cup first round tie in November 2014 proved to be his last for the club. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer over Easter 2015; that April, both clubs for whom he had appeared during 2014-15 were relegated out of the Football League. Richards married Stacey Anstey in May 2015 and was given the all-clear from cancer shortly afterwards. As he recovered, he appeared in six Conference South matches with Bath City, scoring from the penalty spot against Sutton United in February 2016, as well as 7(+4) matches with Weston in the same division, as well as playing briefly in the United States. Merthyr reached the Southern League play-offs in April 2017, only to lose on penalties against Hitchin Town and he scored for Gloucester against a Rovers side in a pre-season friendly in July 2017. He scored seven goals in 51(+11) matches for Hereford, who were promoted to the Nationwide North in the spring of 2018, and was one of two Bulls players sent off in the defeat at Brackley Town in September 2018. In January 2019 his firm strike following a right-wing corner at a frosty Guiseley was the 8,000th goal scored by Hereford and one of three he scored in 27(+7) Conference North appearances. Gavin Williams signed him for his second stint at Merthyr, where he played alongside Ben Swallow. He scored once as Merthyr built up a 3-0 lead in the first-half of an FA Trophy tie against Cinderford Town on Guy Fawkes’ Night 2019, only to lose an absorbing match 5-4, and added a hat-trick as Taunton Town were defeated 4-2 in February 2020. At Barnet, he appeared in three Conference matches, scoring a late winner at Dagenham in October 2020, and was in the side which knocked League One Burton Albion out of the FA Cup the following month. |
No 667. Justin Donovan Richards.2000-03.
Born, 16.10.1980, Sandwell, West Bromwich. 6’; 11 st. Début: 20.1.01 v Reading. Career: West Bromwich Albion (professional, 8.1.99) [0+1,0]; 18.1.01 Bristol Rovers (£75,000) [3+13,0]; 26.1.02 Newport County (loan); 7.3.02 Swindon Town (trial); 21.10.02 Colchester United (loan exchange with Adrian Coote) [0+2,0]; 13.12.02 Stevenage Borough (loan); 17.3.03 Stevenage Borough (free); 11.5.04 Woking (free); 2.6.06 Peterborough United (free) [4+9,1]; 31.10.06 Gray’s Athletic (loan); 11.1.07 Boston United (loan) [3,0]; 6.6.07 Kidderminster Harriers (free); 25.1.08 Oxford United (loan) [10+5,1]; 8.6.09 Cheltenham Town (free) [39+5,15]; 1.8.10 Port Vale [42,9]; 28.7.11 Burton Albion (free) [32+16,12]; 4.1.13 Oxford United (loan); 31.1.13 Oxford United (free) [4,0]; 20.6.13 Tamworth (free); 30.7.14 Sutton Coldfield Town (free); 11.9.15 Stourbridge (free); 22.12.17 Sutton Coldfield Town (free); 6.7.18 Rushall Olympic (free). Signed for Rovers by Ian Holloway, who left the club a week later, Justin Richards emerged from an ignominious start to become a regular goal-scorer in fourth-tier English football. With Jason Roberts and Mickey Evans at West Brom, he had scored four times for the Baggies’ reserve side before joining Rovers. The son of Lewis Richards and Susan Walters, his father being the youngest of four children to Sam Richards and Edith Freda Strike (1916-76), he could not find the net with the Gas. Richards dropped into Conference football to prove his worth before emerging as a League Two striker. First, his nine goals in 21(+21) games at Stevenage included a hat-trick in the 5-0 win against Farnborough Town in December 2002; then he partnered Jefferson Louis up front for Woking, scoring 35 goals in 69(+10) Conference games, despite red cards against Aldershot, Barnet and Forest Green Rovers. One cracking thirty-yard shot after 23 minutes of a 3-1 victory over Forest Green in January 2005 deserves a mention, as does a hat-trick in the 4-0 victory over Scarborough that October and, called up to the England semi-professional squad, Richards marked his sole appearance with a goal in the 1-1 draw with Wales in May 2006. That same month, he played in the FA Trophy Final, although Woking were defeated 2-0 by Gray’s Athletic. Top scorer at Woking, he did reappear in Conference football, adding 22 goals and a red card again at Forest Green, in 60(+5) games for Kidderminster but, from his Peterborough début against Rovers in August 2006, Richards predominantly plied his trade alongside Rovers in the lower divisions, tearing a cruciate ligament in his knee in one fixture against the Pirates. His second goal of an eventful game, in injury-time, enabled Cheltenham to record a 6-5 win at his future team Burton in 2010, having trailed 4-2 with six minutes remaining, and he was later in the Burton side which lost 7-1 at the Memorial Stadium in April 2012, one of several appearances against his former club. Alongside Lewis Haldane and Sean Rigg at Vale Park, his two goals eased Vale to a 3-1 League Cup win at Queen’s Park Rangers in August 2010, he and Louis Dodds both scored hat-tricks when Vale defeated Morecambe 7-2 in April 2011 and, with two goals on his début against Torquay, Justin Richards was Burton’s top scorer in 2011-12. In December 2010, he was fined £2,000 for affray and given community service, following a drunken brawl in the centre of Leeds; he has also taken a degree in professional sports writing and broadcasting at Stafford University. He featured in the Oxford side defeated 2-0 by a resurgent Rovers side at the Kassam Stadium in February 2013 and was in Tamworth’s side which defeated Cheltenham Town 1-0 in the FA Cup in November 2013 before losing 2-1 to Bristol City in the following round. The Lambs, though, suffered relegation from the Conference, Richards’ only goal in 13(+5) fixtures coming in the 3-0 victory at bottom-of-the-table Hyde in January 2014. He scored twenty goals in 38 Northern Premier League First Division matches for Sutton Coldfield, including a run of scoring in five consecutive fixtures over Christmas 2014, his side being promoted after defeating Leek Town 2-0 in the play-off final, with Richards as their top-scorer. Twelve goals followed in 35(+1) appearances for Stourbridge in the same division in 2015-16, but his career was effectively ended by a double knee injury sustained in an FA Cup-tie away to Nantwich Town in November 2016. Subsequently, he appeared in 6(+3) matches for Rushall Olympic in the autumn of 2018, scoring a penalty against St Ives Town, before qualifying as a sports performance coach. |
No 244. William Edward Richards. 1937-38.
Born, 11.8.1905, Abercanaid. Died, 30.9.1956, Wolverhampton. 5’ 8”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 16.10.37 v Gillingham. Career: Troedyrhiw Carlton; July 1923 Mid-Rhondda United; March 1926 Merthyr Town (amateur) [1,0]; May 1926 Wolverhampton Wanderers (professional, August 1926) [30,2]; 15.3.29 Coventry City [76,11]; June 1931 Fulham (£100) [76,14]; May 1935 Brighton [44,6]; 25.5.37 Bristol Rovers [4,0]; August 1938 Folkestone Town. When Wales defeated Northern Ireland 4-1 at Wrexham in December 1932, Billy Richards won his solitary international cap on the wing. A goal behind at the interval, the Welshmen secured victory with Walter Robbins (1910-79) and Dai Astley (1909-89) both recording a brace. The first Fulham player capped by Wales, this solitary cap was due reward for Richards’ rôle in the West London side securing the 1931-32 Third Division (South) championship in 1931-32. Richards, who had remarkably similar records at Coventry and Fulham, had played in the former’s 10-2 defeat at Norwich City in March 1930 and played in the League against Rovers on five occasions at Highfield Road and twice whilst at Craven Cottage. Prior to this, he had scored for Wolves against both Blackpool and Orient in Division Two. In addition to football, Richard enjoyed golf and played club cricket. A former miner, who had made his League bow in Merthyr’s 3-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle in March 1926, Richards was the eighth of eleven children to a colliery worker Levi Richards (1871-1951) and Barbara Williamson (1873-1933) of 82 Cross Picton Street, Merthyr Tydfil and was an older brother of Dai Richards (1906-1969), who played over 200 times for Wolves and also represented Wales. |
No 141. William John Richardson. 1930-31.
Born, 1909, Johannesburg, South Africa. Died, 23.5.1977, Falkirk. 5’ 9”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 30.8.30 Northampton Town. Career: Wallacestone Wesleyans; 1928 Wallacestone Welfare; 23.7.29 Bristol Rovers (free) [8,0]; 15.7.31 Falkirk [60,0]; July 1934 Alloa Athletic [58,4]; 27.5.36 Leith Athletic [56,0]; December 1938 East Stirlingshire (to 1939). Although born in South Africa, Johnny Richardson both began and ended his footballing career in Scotland. A strongly-built full-back, who “offered stout resistance to the scheming and the dash” (The Scotsman), he was not used at Eastville in 1929-30 and then featured as a wing-half, deputising for Norman Dinsdale in a 6-2 defeat at Fulham and for Alec Findlay when Rovers lost 5-2 to home to Brentford, in which game he “resolutely refused to give up trying”, according to the local press. In all, Rovers conceded 25 League goals in Richardson’s eight appearances. He played in goal for the reserves in a 4-0 defeat against Merthyr Town in March 1931 and, seven days later, he and Chris Hackett both missed penalties as the reserves drew 1-1 at home to Bristol University. Although not credited with a goal against QPR in the League – his shot being turned in by Ronnie Dix – he did score for the reserve side in a 4-1 Southern League victory over Taunton Town and, from the penalty spot, in a 10-1 win against Ebbw Vale at Eastville. Back north of the border from 1931, Richardson was a team-mate at Falkirk of Bob Shankly (1910-82), brother of the future Liverpool manager, and played in sixty Scottish League matches at Brockview Park, without scoring, as well as 43 games in other competitions. A regular at Alloa Athletic for two seasons, he scored four Scottish League goals, a last-minute penalty equalizer in an exciting 3-3 draw with Dundee United over Christmas 1934, a long-range free-kick at Leith Athletic ten months later and goals in successive seasons in large home victories over Dumbarton. He would have added to this tally if he had not missed penalties in both the second and third home matches of the 1935-36 season and subsequently lost his rôle as the club’s spot-kick taker. Injured early in the game, as Alloa won 2-0 away to Edinburgh City in April 1936, he never made the side again and soon transferred his allegiances to Leith Athletic. Here his arrival was more dramatic, as he headed an own goal at Somerset Park in August 1936 on his League début, the equalizer in a game ultimately lost 2-1 to Ayr United. The only goal he contributed for Leith was a ninetieth-minute equaliser, direct from a free-kick, in the 4-4 home draw with Albion Rovers in a Scottish Cup-tie in February 1937. A varied footballing career ended with a few months at East Stirling who, like Bristol Rovers, were forced to seek re-election in the summer of 1939, as war clouds hovered over Europe. A keen bowls, cricket and golf enthusiast, Johnny Richardson was chairman after the war at Redding and Westquarter Cricket Club in Falkirk; when the new club house was opened in 1956, he was presented with a gold watch; by the time of Richardson’s death at Falkirk Royal Infirmary in 1977, Gary Gillespie, later a European Cup winner with Liverpool in 1984, was a teenage batsman at the cricket club. Johnny and his wife Bunty Rankin lived at 31 Dovecot Road, Westquarter, where they brought up four sons and a daughter. |
No 330. Graham Anthony Ricketts. 1956-61.
Born, 30.7.1939, Oxford. 5’ 8”; 10 st 5 lbs. Début: 9.2.57 v Notts County. Career: Oxford Schools; 13.7.54 Bristol Rovers (professional, August 1956) [32,0]; 5.7.61 Stockport County [119,6]; July 1964 Doncaster Rovers [143+8,15]; March 1968 Peterborough United (£2,500) [46+4,1]; 1970 King’s Lynn. The holder of seven England Youth caps, wing-half Graham Ricketts played in five consecutive seasons for Rovers in Division Two. Unable to hold down a regular place at Eastville, despite making his début as a seventeen-year-old, he found greater success elsewhere in lower-league football. That elusive first League goal did not materialise at Eastville, although he almost got the final touch to a move in the last minute of a game with Leeds United in August 1960, when Rovers fought back from a 4-0 half-time deficit to earn a dramatic 4-4 draw. Ricketts who represented the Suburban League against the Downs League in 1955, was a team-mate of Norman Sykes at Doncaster and appeared in their 3-2 victory over Rovers in October 1966. His final League appearance came on Easter Saturday 1970, as Peterborough lost 4-3 at Southend United. He had joined Rovers whilst working for the Longwell Green coach works and later worked as a foreman and safety supervisor in a company specialising in portable buildings, work which took him to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Aden. He is the son of Reginald James Ricketts (1908-94) and Ethel Margaret Harding (1908-2000), who married in Oxford in 1935 and, married to Pauline Price with three daughters as well as grandchildren, lives in the Northampton area. |
No 350. Brian James Rideout. 1960-62.
Born, 15.9.1940, Barton Hill, Bristol. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 15.10.60 v Lincoln City. Career: Carlton Park School; 30.8.56 Bristol Rovers (professional, February 1959) [1,0]; 28.7.60 Yeovil Town; 7.8.63 Bath City; 10.10.64 Minehead (released, May 1966). In the absence of the injured Josser Watling, left-back Brian Rideout played in a 3-1 victory over Lincoln before an Eastville crowd of 16,853, as well as a League Cup victory at Reading three days earlier. He had made his début for the reserves in an astonishing game in March 1959 when Rovers, 5-1 ahead two minutes after half-time, managed to draw 5-5 with Brighton reserves. The youngest of three children to Henry Rideout and Edith Emily Belcher, who married in Bristol in 1922, Brian Rideout scored four goals in 63 games for Minehead, his début coming in a Western League encounter with Glastonbury at Irnham Road in October 1964. He had earlier struggled to break into the Yeovil side, not appearing for the Glovers regularly until the 1962-63 season, when he scored against Trowbridge Town in the Southern League Cup. An apprentice engineer during his time at Eastville, he married Adele Frances James in Bristol in 1963 and worked in the engineering industry in Bristol until his retirement, living in Whitchurch. |
No 755. Sean Michael Rigg. 2006-10.
Born, 4.2.1988, Wotton-under-Edge. 5’ 9”; 12 st 1 lb. Début: 19.8.06 v MK Dons. Career: Charfield; Forest Green Rovers; Bristol City (schoolboy); Bristol Rovers (professional, 10.8.06) [15+42,2]; 19.9.08 Gray’s Athletic (loan); 21.8.09 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 24.11.09 Port Vale (loan); 27.5.10 Port Vale (free) [58+35,16]; 22.5.12 Oxford United (free) [61+11,7]; 22.5.14 AFC Wimbledon (free) [57+26,7]; 20.6.16 Newport County (free) [38+12,6]; 6.2.18 Bath City (free; retired, 3.5.19). Versatile forward Sean Rigg made his League début as a 74th-minute substitute for Lewis Haldane, who was to become a long-standing team-mate at Vale Park. Initially a left-sided midfielder, he is the son of Jimmy Rigg, a talented local footballer, and Kim Bennett, and the grandson of a Barrow Rugby League player. His great-great-grandfather Fred Bennett (1870-1952) had once claimed the wicket of WG Grace in a match at Bristol’s County Ground in September 1889; through Fred Bennett he could trace his family back to locally-born John Webb, the son of Caleb and Alice Webb, born in January 1695. After 7(+5) reserve games in 2005-06 brought two goals and his six goals in 24(+1) Under-18 matches had included a hat-trick away to Hereford United in September 2005, Rigg went on an English Colleges XI tour to Italy in the spring of 2006, whilst based at Filton College, and attended a college tour of China that summer. A goal at Worcester City in a pre-season game in 2006 announced his arrival and he broke into the League side. No sooner had this happened, in a televised FA Cup-tie at Holker Street, Barrow centre-back James Cotterill broke Rigg’s jaw with a punch which led to a four-month prison sentence. Despite missing much of that campaign, Rigg’s five goals in eleven matches left him as the reserves’ seasonal top scorer. As Rovers pushed for promotion in the spring of 2007, his first League strike earned a 1-0 win at Macclesfield and another goal in the play-offs at Lincoln eased Rovers into a Wembley play-off final where, as a late substitute, he was on the hallowed turf as Rovers completed their 3-1 victory over Shrewsbury Town to seal promotion to third-tier English football. A second League goal, in the 1-1 home draw with Northampton Town in March 2008, followed, before six games at Gray’s and he joined Haldane and Justin Richards at Vale Park, playing in the 5-0 away victory over Chesterfield in March 2010. Sent off in a 3-0 defeat at Accrington over Easter 2011, Rigg scored at The Mem in October 2011, his goal earning an enormous cheer as Rovers crashed to a 3-0 defeat and his Oxford début alongside Ryan Clarke in August 2012 was also on his old home ground. He re-appeared in the Oxford side Rovers defeated 1-0 in the autumn of 2013 and played in the same Wimbledon side as Adam Barrett and Harry Pell, scoring against Shrewsbury Town on his début before featuring in the side which lost a televised FA Cup-tie narrowly to Liverpool in January 2015 and played at The Mem in March 2016, helping Wimbledon to the League Two play-offs. Once there, he once again played at Wembley, as his side scored two late goals to defeat Plymouth Argyle and secure promotion, alongside Rovers, up to League One. He was sent off in Newport’s FA Cup-tie at Plymouth in December 2016 and for Bath at East Thurrock United in February 2018 amidst 29(+4) Nationwide South games which brought eight goals. The Romans reached the Conference South play-offs in 2018-19, at which point Rigg retired to focus on his business work, running Stroud Tattoo Company since 2018. Sean Rigg and his fiancée, with a daughter born in May 2011, lived for a while in Newcastle-under-Lyme. |
No 164. Joseph Riley. 1931-33.
Born, 13.7.1909, Gloucester. Died, 1982, Gloucester. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 2.1.32 v Bournemouth. Career: Conisborough Welfare Club; February 1929 Huddersfield Town (trial); April 1929 Denaby United; October 1930 Goldthorpe United; 8.5.31 Bristol Rovers [9,4]; 25.5.33 Bristol City [59,21]; 21.5.35 Bournemouth (£2,000) [93,57]; 22.12.37 Notts County (exchange for Harry Mardon) [7,1]; August 1938 Gloucester City; July 1939 Cheltenham Town. As one of only three players to score a hat-trick on his Rovers Football league début, Joe Riley’s goal-scoring track record was certainly impressive. Seventy-five goals in two seasons for Conisborough preceded his move into League football. Largely out of the side at Eastville, he scored four times for the reserves against Bristol University in October 1931 and added a hat-trick in the game with Llanelli as well as a goal in the friendly against the touring Czech side Sporting Club Nachod. At Ashton Gate, he made his début against Rovers, oddly in the 1933 game when Jimmy McCambridge scored a hat-trick on his début, and scored from the penalty-spot when Rovers defeated City 5-1 that Christmas. Early in 1934 he hit a rich vein of form, scoring all the goals as City defeated Brighton 5-0 in February, this tally including a five-minute hat-trick, and adding two goals as Tranmere Rovers were beaten 3-0 in the Welsh Cup Final. Top scorer in 1933-34, he also played in the 2-2 local derby draw in September 1934 before truly making his mark at Bournemouth. Top scorer in 1935-36, he hit 25 League goals in successive campaigns, registering a hat-trick for Bournemouth against Rovers in September 1936. He is the only man who has scored League hat-tricks both for and against Rovers. Not content with this, he scored three more as Rovers lost the Allen Palmer Cup Final 3-1 at Dean Court in April 1937 and also scored League hat-tricks against Torquay United and Newport County that campaign. With “dash as well as skill” (Bournemouth Daily Echo), he replaced Hughie Gallacher (1903-57) for his Notts County début, the Christmas Day fixture with Gillingham which was abandoned just short of the hour mark and later lived to the age of seventy in Cheltenham where, as a scout for Bristol City, he “discovered” Dennis Roberts (1918-2001). Joe Riley married in Bristol in 1933 Ada Victoria Ridd (1912-87), the daughter of Arthur Ridd (1880-1956) and Ada Georgina Martin (1880-1968), with a son Dennis, who died young, and a daughter Jane, who married Graham Newman in 1967; Joe Riley’s grand-daughter, Claire Louise Newman, was born in 1970. He lived for some years at 7 Springwell Gardens, Gloucester. After being widowed, Ada retired to Sussex to be nearer their daughter. |
No 838. Derek George Riordan. 2012-13.
Born, 16.1.1983, Edinburgh. 5’ 11½”; 11 st 12 lbs. Début: 29.9.12 v Exeter City. Career: Craigroyston High School; 2000 Hibernian (professional, 1.8.01); 1.1.03 Cowdenbeath (loan) [2,3]; 23.6.06 Celtic (£170,000) [8+16,5]; 1.9.08 Hibernian (£400,000) [191+34,90]; 6.7.11 Shaanxi Chan-Ba; 10.1.12 Kilmarnock (trial); 17.1.12 Blackpool (trial); 30.3.12 St Johnstone [2+2,0]; 18.7.12 MK Dons (trial); 27.9.12 Bristol Rovers [7+4,0] (released, 18.12.12); 4.5.13 Brora Rangers (trial); 16.1.14 Alloa Athletic (trial); 21.1.14 Royal Antwerp (trial); 14.2.14 Alloa Athletic (free) [0+2,0]; 17.10.14 Brechin City (trial) [0+1,0]; 5.1.15 Livingston (trial); 23.2.15 East Fife (trial); 6.3.15 East Fife (free) [8+2,4]; 4.8.15 Brechin City (trial); 8.9.15 Hibernian (trial); 20.12.15 St Johnstone (trial); 18.1.16 York City (trial); 29.1.16 York City (free, to 7.5.16) [1+3,0]; 28.2.17 Edinburgh City (free) [7,3]; 4.4.18 St Bernard’s (free). An exciting attacking talent in his younger years, Derek Riordan arrived at the Memorial Stadium with a reputation as a great goal-scorer but something of a firebrand off the pitch. A court case was impending for an incident involving a night-club bouncer in Lothian Road, Edinburgh in May 2012, which led to an £800 fine and multiple bans from a variety of clubs and bars, and he had been sent off in the first-half of a 6-0 defeat at Celtic over Christmas 2003 and for a well-publicised foul on Rudi Skácel in the Edinburgh derby in November 2010. However, he had been a teenage sensation at Easter Road, following his début in December 2001 in the cauldron of a derby with Hearts. Scottish Premier League Young Player of the Year in 2005, he had been Hibs’ top scorer in four seasons and stood at that time as the third highest goal-scorer in SPL history. A right-footed hat-trick in the 3-0 win against Kilmarnock in January 2005, three more goals in the astonishing 6-6 draw with Motherwell in May 2010 and appearances in the UEFA Cup made his name high-profile north of the border. A hat-trick in Cowdenbeath’s remarkable 7-5 win at Brechin City in January 2003 preceded a move to Celtic which brought “Deek” Champions League football, a brace of goals in a Cup-tie against Livingston, a Scottish Cup semi-final appearance against his future club St Johnstone and contract offers from Lokomotiv Moscow and Kaiserslautern. As captain at Hibernian, he added to his four Scotland Under-21 caps with full international honours, representing Scotland on three occasions as substitute, against Austria in 2005 as a half-time replacement for Kenny Miller in a 2-2 draw, and both Japan and Wales in the autumn of 2009. Out of favour in Scotland, he had tried his luck in China prior to his arrival at Rovers, making his Shaanxi début against Liaoning Whowin in July 2011 and scoring his one goal in nine appearances in the match with Chengdu Blades the following month. A goalless spell at Mark McGhee’s Rovers, during which time his partner Susannah Robinson gave birth to Romy, three years after their daughter Ruby was born, and legal ramifications following the Lothian Road incident hung over him, preceded a move back north of the border and a long search for a new club. He made substitute appearances with Alloa Athletic in February 2014 against Livingston and Morton and played thirteen minutes as a Brechin substitute at home to Stranraer before making his East Fife bow as a substitute in the home victory over East Stirling; he scored the winning goal against Annan Athletic in the following match and scored one and created two others three days later in a 5-3 victory at Elgin City. East Fife lost to Stenhousemuir in the play-offs, appearing as a first-leg substitute before starting the second-leg. Thereafter, he attempted to resurrect his career at York, who lost their Football League status in the spring of 2016, Riordan being on the bench when Rovers won 4-1 at Bootham Crescent that April, and at Edinburgh City, where he scored against Forfar Athletic in his first appearance. In May 2014 he was fined £430 in court for an assault on Damian Holahan in Malone’s Bar in Forrest Road, Edinburgh in February 2013 and a December 2014 head-butt in The Black Bull pub in Edinburgh led to a £400 fine the following October. In addition, he had been fined for travelling at 94mph on the A9 in 2008 in a hired BMW and was banned from all Edinburgh night clubs for two years, following separate incidents in the city. In January 2016 he failed to appear in court in Falkirk in relation to his mortgage on a luxury home at Castleview, near Airth Castle, Stirlingshire, a house he was later forced to sell cheaply to pay off mounting mortgage costs. Now working as a consultant with Deadline Day Sports and running Barnton Landscaping, a gardening company, he has three children. |
No 887. Connor Richard John Roberts. 2016-17.
Born, 23.9.1995, Neath. 5’ 9”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 1.10.2016 v Northampton Town. Career: Swansea City (professional, 23.4.14) [122+11,11]; 8.8.15 Yeovil Town (loan) [45,0]; 25.8.16 Bristol Rovers (loan) [2,0]; 14.7.17 Middlesbrough (loan) [1,0]; 31.8.21 Burnley [19+2,1]. With Rovers freshly promoted to League One, manager Darrell Clarke’s steady strengthening of his side included the long-term loan acquisition of full-back Connor Roberts. The young Welshman came with a glowing reputation from Yeovil Town, where he had spent a season on loan, playing twice against Rovers (he also played against Rovers for Swansea in a July 2019 pre-season friendly) and excelling in a defence which held firm as the season progressed to ensure the Glovers were not dragged into a relegation dogfight. Roberts was named as the club’s Player of the Year as well as earning a Welsh Under-21 cap against Romania in March 2016 to add to a solitary appearance for the Wales Under-19 side. Formerly alongside another Rovers loanee Oliver McBurnie at Swansea, Roberts was signed as back-up for Lee Brown and, after waiting a number of games, played in an impressive 3-2 win away to high-flying Northampton Town and a 3-3 draw earned at Wycombe through Matty Taylor’s second-half hat-trick. He also played in Boro’s match at Elland Road in November 2017, which was lost 2-1 to Leeds United. Although Swansea were relegated from the Premier League in 2018, Roberts was called up to the full Welsh squad in the spring of that year and won his first full cap against Uruguay in Nanning, playing alongside Rovers’ captain Tom Lockyer. He was to score his first goal for Wales with a low, left-footed drive after 55 minutes of the comfortable 4-1 victory over the Republic of Ireland in September 2018, winning 41 full caps in all; he set up David Brooks’ late consolation goal in a 2-1 defeat in Croatia in June 2019 but was sent off towards the end of Wales’ 1-0 home victory over the Czech Republic in a World Cup qualifier in March 2021. During the 2020-21 campaign, Roberts had been one of the reasons Swansea performed so well, reaching the Championship play-off final only to lose to a rampant Brentford side, and club form earned him a deserved call-up to the Welsh squad for the delayed Euro 2020 championship held in the summer of 2021, starting all four of the Welsh Dragons’ games at the tournament and scoring a dramatic stoppage-time goal as Turkey were defeated 2-0 in Baku. A third international goal followed, the final one in a 5-1 victory in a World Cup qualifier against Belarus in November 2021. Following this success, he played in the Premier League for Burnley, scoring against Southampton on Maundy Thursday 2022, but his side was relegated that season after losing at home to Newcastle United on the final day. He announced his engagement in June 2020 to musician Georgina van Hoof, otherwise known as Georgina Marcella, their daughter Elsie Madiya Roberts being born at the end of March 2022. That summer, in June 2022, Connor Roberts played as Wales defeated Ukraine 1-0 in a play-off to qualify for the 2022 World Cup Finals, their first appearance at this level since 1958. |
No 62. Francis Roberts. 1924-25.
Born, 13.4.1897, Amondell Lodge, Uphall, Linlithgow. Died, 1975, Park Circus, Glasgow. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 30.8.24 v Merthyr Town. Career: Army football; 1919 Petershill; July 1920 Cadzow St Anne’s; October 1920 Queen’s Park; 11.5.21 Rangers; 28.10.21 Cowdenbeath [21,0]; 29.4.22 Rangers; 1.12.22 St Johnstone [22,3]; 30.4.23 Rangers; 6.9.23 Alloa Athletic [7,1]; 25.4.24 Rangers; June 1924 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; 9.2.27 Ayr United [1,0] (to 1927). Tough and apparently always on the move between clubs, Frank Roberts played in Rovers’ 1-0 win against Merthyr Town and in a 2-0 defeat at Northampton Town which was almost lost in the dense fog. That season, he had appeared in the trial game in which, it was reported, “Roberts talked a deal too much”. Never in the Rangers side, he was “ a glutton for work, but at times inclined to run wild”, a statement which may begin to explain why he faced a Scottish Football Association hearing in Glasgow in January 1923, at which he was censured though not fined. As St Johnstone narrowly missed promotion from Division Two, Roberts made his début in a 2-0 win over Armadale and was reported to have played especially well against East Fife in February 1923. His first goal for the club came in “wretched conditions” as Saints defeated Arbroath 6-3, when “Roberts, at centre-half, played well”, a second goal was a header from [Paddy] Callaghan’s corner after an hour of the 3-1 win at King’s Park and the third was a twenty-yard shot, the only goal of the game away to Lochgelly United – “it was a hard shot and baffled [Andrew] Paterson (1890-1984), whose view was obstructed” (The Scotsman). The following campaign he scored his only goal for Alloa in the first-half of their 3-1 victory over Lochgelly United in December 1923 and, having left Rovers, he managed one match for Ayr alongside the future Rovers player Danny Tolland, his side leading by three goals after an hour and defeating King’s Park 5-2 in February 1927 before a crowd of 2,000 at Somerset Park. Frank Roberts, who was born at 2.30am on a Tuesday morning over Easter 1897, was the eighth of ten children to a gardener Francis Roberts senior and his wife, Jessie Smith, who had married at Fauldhouse on 27th November 1879, and was brought up at 12 Eastwood Crescent, Thornliebank. |
No 242. Henry Bromley Roberts. 1937-38.
Born, 27.6.1904, Crofton, near Wakefield. Died, May 1968, Plymouth Military Hospital. 5’ 8”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 4.9.37 v Mansfield Town. Career: Castleford Town; February 1925 Leeds United [84,2]; November 1930 Plymouth Argyle [248,21]; 3.9.37 Bristol Rovers (£820) [77,1]; 12.8.39 Frickley Colliery. Strong, dependable and approaching the veteran stage, Harry Roberts lent Rovers’ defence an air of invincibility. A “fine tackler and a deadly penalty-taker”, he had picked up the pseudonym “Rock of Gibraltar” at Home Park, which goes some way to explaining his popularity in Plymouth at that time. In seven seasons, he gave an air of confidence to Argyle’s defence, as he had earlier done at Leeds and his 24 League goals were all from the penalty-spot, including the winning goal as Cardiff City were defeated 2-1 at Eastville on Easter Monday 1938. His Leeds goals both came from the spot in the same match against Aston Villa in September 1929. He did, however, also play in Plymouth’s 9-1 defeat at Everton in December 1930, a club record which stands to this day, and was in the Rovers side that lost an FA Cup-tie 8-1 at home to QPR in November 1937. He joined Frickley Colliery on the same day as Charlie Wipfler. After the war he ran a fruit and vegetable stall in Plymouth. A keen sportsman, Harry Roberts also enjoyed bowls and golf. Baptised at Crofton All Saints on 14th July 1904, he married Hilda Littlewood, five years his junior, in Leeds in 1933 and had a son Allan. |
No 624. Jason Andre Davis Roberts. 1998-2000.
Born, 25.1.1978, Park Royal, Middlesex. 6’ 1”; 13 st 6 lbs. Début: 8.8.98 v Burnley. Career: Parkside Youth; 1992 Tottenham Hotspur (trial); Watford (trial); Chelsea (trial); Aston Villa (trial); 1994 Wycombe Wanderers; 1995 Hayes; 12.9.97 Wolverhampton Wanderers (£250,000); 19.12.97 Torquay United (loan) [13+1,6]; 26.3.98 Bristol City (loan) [1+2,1]; 6.8.98 Bristol Rovers (£250,000) [73+5,38]; 26.7.00 West Bromwich Albion (£2,100,000) [75+14,24]; 1.9.03 Portsmouth (loan) [4+6,1]; 13.1.04 Wigan Athletic (£1,400,000) [93,37]; 3.7.06 Blackburn Rovers [73+61,24]; 26.1.12 Reading [25+3,6] (retired, 20.3.14); 8.11.17 Concacaf (Director of Development). Charismatic and with burgeoning leadership potential, Jason Roberts was a free-scoring striker, is an influential charity worker and remains Rovers’ club record sale. Born into a footballing family in Stonebridge and the son of Jerome Roberts and Esther Regis, Roberts is a nephew of Cyrille Regis MBE (1958-2018), holder of five England caps, of Dave Regis of Notts County and Stoke, and of the Barnet and Grenada player Otis Regis, as well as a relative of the Olympic silver medallist John Regis MBE. An influential player in non-league circles, Roberts’ arrival at Wolves in 1997 was for what then constituted a record fee involving a non-league player. Even though Wolves never played him, the potential they recognised was based on his eleven goals in 25(+9) Conference matches for Hayes. Farmed out on loan, he played alongside Andy Gurney at Torquay and scored the 54th-minute winner for Bristol City at Oldham in March 1998 as the Robins eased towards promotion to Division One. Bought to replace Peter Beadle, Roberts soon scored for Rovers, the final goal in a 4-1 home victory over his future club Reading. What followed was a bizarre four-day spell that autumn, as he scored the opening five goals as the reserves defeated Exeter City reserves 7-3 at the Hand Stadium, Clevedon, passed his driving test, then was one of two Rovers players sent off in a 1-0 home victory over Bournemouth. Roberts scored a hat-trick as Welling United were defeated 3-0 in the FA Cup in October 1998, then came out of the shadows once Barry Hayles was sold and built up an extraordinarily lethal partnership with Jamie Cureton. “Like a Pamplona bull” (Stuart Hall) in his playing style, he could apparently score goals against any defence. He scored the final two as he and Cureton scored six second-half goals at Reading in January 1999, scored in six consecutive games at this time and drew attention from Leicester City and Birmingham City as well as Turkish club, Beşiktaş, then managed by former West German international Hans-Peter Briegel. He won the Golden Boot in 1998-99, having scored seven FA Cup goals that season, more than any other Football League player. Roberts was Rovers’ second highest scorer in 1998-99, despite a red card at Fulham, and joint top scorer the following campaign, winning international honours in the process. With a Grenadan father and mother from French Guyana, he had options and selected to play alongside his uncle for Grenada, for whom he scored twelve goals in 22 matches, including two in the 10-0 defeat of US Virgin Islands in March 2008. West Brom paid a huge fee, his uncle Cyrille Regis being his agent, to take the striker to the Hawthorns where, despite being injured towards the end of the 2001-02 campaign, he helped the Baggies secure promotion to the Premier League. He played against Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July 2002 and was sent off against Manchester City as West Brom were relegated in the spring of 2003. A club record signing at Wigan, he justified the price tag with a goal after just 33 seconds on his début, a back-heel past Bobby Gould’s son Jonathan, as the Baggies won 4-2 at Preston. Nathan Ellington, a former Rovers player now his team-mate, scored twice that day and the pair built up an extraordinary partnership as Wigan reached top-flight football for the first time in their history. “If Jason Roberts and Nathan Ellington are on their game, they will be an absolute handful”, predicted manager Paul Jewell and Roberts obliged with Wigan’s first Premier League goal. Despite a missed penalty against Coventry and red cards against Palace and Stoke, he made his way into the PFA Championship XI for 2004-05 and made his name in the top division, where he was sent off against Everton and played in the 2006 League Cup Final against Manchester United; he is “a man built in Wigan’s image, the shape and size of a brick outhouse, full of honest industry and a man who takes no nonsense from anyone” (Roy Collins). Further success at Blackburn included European football and an FA Cup semi-final goal, in a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, as well as red cards against Spurs and his former club West Brom, before he missed a penalty but scored the only goal from the rebound against Bristol City on his Reading début. The Royals’ late-season form in 2011-12 saw them surge unstoppably and irresistibly back to the Premier League as champions, winning fifteen out of seventeen matches that spring, and Roberts, despite another red card against Crystal Palace, returned to top-flight football. In October 2012 he scored the opening goal as Reading raced into a first-half 4-0 lead only to lose 7-5 after extra-time to Arsenal in an astonishing League Cup-tie and the Royals were relegated the following spring, the single-goal defeat at Southampton proving Roberts’ final League outing in a career eventually curtailed by a persistent hip injury. Jason Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2010 for his services to charity, yet he is also an up-and-coming journalist and presenter as well as a respected and outspoken advocate of several worthy causes, notably the drive to eradicate racism from sport. |
No 403. Phillip Stanley Roberts. 1969-73.
Born, 24.2.1950, Cardiff. 6; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 23.8.69 v Reading. Career: Bristol Rovers (schoolboy); Cardiff City (schoolboy); 1965 Bristol Rovers (professional, November 1968) [174+1,6]; 12.5.73 Portsmouth (£55,000) [152+1,1]; 14.6.78 Hereford United [3,0]; February 1979 Exeter City [103+2,0]; September 1982 Chard Town; October 1982 Taunton Town; 26.11.82 Yeovil Town; 5.4.83 Ottery St Mary (free); 3.8.84 Weymouth; September 1984 Chard Town. From his début in a 5-1 win at Reading, right-back Phil Roberts proved dependable, reliable and adaptable as Rovers put together a consistent side. An overlapping full-back, he made 150 consecutive League appearances for the club and was an ever-present in both 1970-71 and 1971-72, as the basis for a promotion side was pieced together. Goals were rare but included a fiercely-struck free-kick past goalkeeper Kevin Keelan MBE in extra time during the League Cup-tie of October 1970 against Norwich City. The holder of six Wales Under-23 caps, he had played in eight games as the Wales XI toured Asia and Oceania in 1971; Roberts could have been part of the successful Rovers side which secured promotion to Division Two in 1973-74, but he was snapped up by Portsmouth in 1973, where he won four full caps for his country, the first in England’s 2-0 victory in Cardiff in May 1974. The fee Rovers received for his services constitutes a club record sale. Bizarrely, Roberts twice scored own goals in Notts County’s favour, once for Rovers in September 1971 and later with Pompey in February 1974. He and George Graham, later the Arsenal manager, were both in the Portsmouth side defeated 1-0 at Ashton Gate in April 1976 on the day Bristol City regained their First Division status after a 65-year gap. Signed by Brian Godfrey, a former Rovers team-mate, for Exeter, he did not score for the Grecians in the League, but did score in their 4-0 League Cup victory over Newcastle United in February 1981 and played in an FA Cup quarter-final that season against Spurs. He subsequently appeared in 21 Conference games at Yeovil Town, without scoring, and in three games in a brief spell with Weymouth. Phil Roberts, the elder child of Stanley Roberts and Elsie Garratt, the daughter of Albert Garratt and Elsie Tucker, Albert being the son of James Hann Garratt and Ellen Edwards (1855-1923), entered the pub trade before working as a painter and decorator in Ottery St Mary. He married Maureen Harris, whose mother Violet was the Rovers tea lady who famously recommended goalkeeper Nigel Martyn to te club. After his marriage broke up, he spent six months at his sister’s house in Australia before spending twelve years selling bicycles in Thailand, where he met his second wife. Phil, Toon and their daughter Jenny lived in Mountain Ash, South Wales, where he worked in the maintenance team at the University Hospital of Wales, before retiring to Merthyr where he suffered a stroke in the spring of 2022. |
No 76. Thomas Roberts. 1925-30.
Born, 4.8.1903, Bristol. Died, 1970, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 26.9.25 v Luton Town. Career: Fairfield United; Bedminster Victoria; 3.10.24 Trowbridge Town; 11.2.25 Bristol Rovers (trial); 11.3.25 Bristol Rovers [120,6]; July 1930 Lovell’s Athletic. One-club men who play over one hundred League matches are a rare breed, but inside-forward Tom Roberts fits the bill. A product of Suburban League football, he scored a hat-trick for Trowbridge against Spencer Moultons in the Amateur Cup in November 1924 and ten goals in his time there; he joined Rovers not long afterwards. Scoring for the reserves against his former employers, Trowbridge Town, in the Bristol Charity League in April 1925, he soon established himself in the League side. The game at Southend in December 1925 was best forgotten, as Roberts missed a penalty, injured his knee and ended up as a passenger on the left-wing in a 3-1 defeat. He recovered his poise, though, to register his first goal for the club in a 4-0 victory over Aberdare Athletic in November 1926 and scored in successive games over Easter 1928. He was also in the side that raced to a 3-0 lead inside seventeen minutes at Crystal Palace in March 1927, only to lose 7-4. In 1929, Tom Roberts married Ethel May “Ivy” Hay (1902-1930), the daughter of George Francis Hay (1863-1918) and Emma Osman (1862-1942), who died in child-birth, their daughter Ivy Rosemary Roberts (1930-76) later marrying Wilfred Lesley James Brice (1929-94). He was also loosely related to Fred Channon, who played in one match in goal for Rovers in the Southern League in 1920. Widowed young and later living for a while in Canada, his name has lived on in one corner of Bristol, for his wife’s niece Joan Hay-Dickenson (1923-2007) married Rovers’ chairman Denis Dunford (1922-2012), their son Geoff Dunford (1951-2017) succeeding his father at Rovers. |
No 215. Alfred Joseph Robertson. 1935-36.
Born, 3.7.1908, Fulwell, Co Durham. Died, 8.9.1984, Clayton-le-Moors. 6’; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 2.9.35 v Cardiff City. Career: Bank Head; Newcastle United (trial); 4.5.28 Notts County; 1929 Grantham Town; 6.5.30 Bradford Park Avenue [45,0]; 8.7.33 Clapton Orient [50,0]; 8.5.35 Bristol Rovers [8,0]; 26.6.36 Accrington Stanley [81,0] (to May 1939); 1946 Dunkenhalgh. “Anyone within 150 yards’ range and with normal hearing could not fail to hear Robertson’s instructions from the goalmouth”, reported the Accrington Observer of this tall and dominant goalkeeper. Alf Robertson, a riveter in the ship-building industry like his father before him, helped Rovers reserves win the Western League in 1935-36 and, having enjoyed a brief spell in the League side in the autumn of 1935, was recalled in February 1936 after Jack Ellis had been injured against Crystal Palace. The youngest of nine children to John Robertson and Isabella Dingwall (1868-1925), who had married in 1890, he was brought up at 39 Anne Street, Fulwell, but settled later in life in Accrington. Alf Robertson apparently played the game of his life when Stanley opposed Manchester City in an FA Cup fourth-round tie in January 1937. |
No 911. Alexander James Rodman. 2018-
Born. 15.2.1987, Sutton Coldfield. 6' 2"; 12 st 7 lbs Début: 4.8.18 v Peterborough United Career: Aston Villa; Wolverhampton Wanderers; 2003 Arden Forest; 2004 Coleshill Town; July 2005 Leamington (free); July 2006 Alfreton Town (trial); July 2006 Grantham Town (free); July 2007 Lincoln United (free); 2.11.07 Gainsborough Trinity (free); 30.1.08 Nuneaton Borough (free); 30.5.08 Tamworth (free); July 2009 Notts County (loan); 26.1.11 Aldershot Town (free) [33+10,7]; 7.11.12 York City (loan) [12+6,1]; 8.7.13 Grimsby Town (free); 2.7.14 Hibernian (trial); 14.7.14 Gateshead (free); 9.6.15 Newport County (free) [25+4,4]; 24.6.16 Notts County (free) [15+1,1]; 5.1.17 Shrewsbury Town (free) [34+7,6]; 2.7.18 Bristol Rovers (free; retired, 20.5.23) [55+21,8]. Tall, exciting winger Alex Rodman signed for Rovers ahead of the club's third successive League One season. He brought a wealth of experience, not least for having opposed Rovers with five separate clubs. Indeed, Rodman scored against Rovers for Aldershot Town, in both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, with Conference side Gateshead, for Newport County and for the Shrews; having scored one of four first-half goals promotion hopefuls Shrewsbury put past Rovers in Shropshire, he was sometimes credited with the goal he created for Aristote Nsiala, a late winner at The Mem in the spring of 2018. Overall, he had scored five times in nine League and Conference matches against the Gas prior to signing. A long non-league career had seen three goals in 25 Midland Football Alliance matches with Leamington; his Goal of the Round in the FA Cup third qualifying round tie with Woodford Town had helped set up a prestigious first-round game with Colchester United, which was lost 9-1. Relegation from the Northern Premier League followed with Grantham (two goals in 29 matches) and he followed up five goals in 20 games at Lincoln United with a Conference North debut at Burscough, one of twelve games for Trinity which brought two goals. Two goals in nine games at Nuneaton preceded 21 in 83 for Tamworth, who were Conference North champions in 2008-09; he scored a hat-trick against Newport County in the Conference in January 2011. A Football League bow included a goal at Gillingham for Aldershot, but his time in Hampshire was restricted by a pulmonary embolism, causing him to miss the majority of the 2011-12 campaign and he subsequently played in 26(+9) games, scoring seven times, as Grimsby reached the Conference play-offs. Sent off after scoring against Welling United in March 2015, Rodman was in the Gateshead side which finished tenth in the Conference alongside Rovers, contributing nine goals in 37(+2) matches and he later made his name in lower-league football. Notably, his late consolation goal away to Stevenage in 2015-16 ensured one Welsh punter earned £30,000 on a £1 accumulator bet and he led Shrewsbury on their unlikely promotion charge in 2017-18. Narrowly missing out on automatic promotion, the Shrews lost the Football League Trophy Final at Wembley in April 2018 to Lincoln City and the play-off final there the following month to Rotherham United, Rodman playing in both games and scoring in the latter. The son of half-American half-English Chris Rodman and his Welsh wife Dawne Millett, he dedicated his goal against Walsall in March 2018 to his ill maternal grandfather, Michael Millett. Having represented England Futsal five times in 2006-07, he played for the England C side twice, against the Republic of Ireland in May 2010 and scoring in a 2-2 draw with Wales five months later, and featured for the British Universities side whilst studying for a Masters in Business at Nottingham Trent University. His degree was put to good use, as he and his brother started up a sock business. Apparently on the radar of Peterborough, Coventry and Ipswich, he signed for Rovers whilst the 2018 World Cup Finals were in full swing. Out of the side following family illness, he returned to score his first goal for the Gas in the Football League Trophy tie against Yeovil Town in October 2018. A League goal followed two months later, as managerless Rovers took an unexpected early lead at the Stadium of Light and a campaign blighted by personal tragedy and injury ended in style, as his second goal of the game, in stoppage time, earned a final-day victory over promoted Barnsley at The Mem. During the global coronavirus pandemic, despite personal trauma and Rovers’ impending relegation to League Two, Alex Rodman devoted considerable time and energy to helping those around him, particularly on the educational front, and was deservedly given the national League One Player in the Community award for 2020-21. After a positive start to the following campaign, he missed several months after breaking a bone in his foot during training and was a squad player as Rovers claimed a hugely unlikely final-day promotion back up to League One. In February 2023 he was appointed to the Players’ Board at the Professional Footballers’ Association. |
No 384. Kenneth Ronaldson. 1965-69.
Born, 27.9.1945, Edinburgh. Died, 14.7.2021, Gillingham, Kent. 6’ 1”; 12 st 3 lbs. Début: 27.11.65 v Exeter City. Career: Tynecastle Juniors; 1963 Aberdeen [1,0]; 7.7.65 Bristol Rovers (free) [72+4,15]; 22.11.69 Gillingham (exchange for Carl Gilbert) [6,0] (retired, 1971). When Mansfield Town came to Eastville for a Third Division fixture in September 1967, Ken Ronaldson scored against them after just twenty-eight seconds. It was one of several goals the Scottish striker contributed, also scoring in three consecutive League matches in October 1966 and hitting Rovers’ eighteenth-minute opening goal in the comfortable home win over Mansfield Town in March 1969. An electrical engineer by trade, he had played in Aberdeen’s 3-0 home defeat to Clyde in December 1964 and one of his two League Cup appearances had been at Ibrox, before he became one of seventeen men released in May 1965. Having made his final appearance for Gillingham in the side beaten 4-1 at Priestfield by Rovers in October 1970, Robin Stubbs scoring all Rovers’ goals, Ken Ronaldson worked for many years in the Kent police force. He married Maureen Duhig in 1971, the younger daughter of Robert Duhig (1914-2005) and his wife Margaret Preshous (1907-74). |
No 884. Kelle Willem Roos. 2016-17.
Born, 31.5.1992, Rijkevoort, Holland. 6’ 5”; 14 st 2 lbs. Début: 10.9.16 v Rochdale. Career: 1996 VV Toxandria; 2001 VV Trekvogels; 2002 Juliana 31; 2004 Quick 1888; 2005 PSV Eindhoven; 2011 Willem II Tilburg Jong (free); 2012 NEC (free); 8.7.13 Birmingham City (trial); 15.7.13 Bristol City (trial); 27.7.13 RKSV Nuenen (free); 8.11.13 Nuneaton Town (free); 13.1.14 Liverpool (trial); 23.1.14 Derby County (£25,000) [68+2,0]; 15.7.15 Rotherham United (loan) [4,0]; 1.2.16 AFC Wimbledon (loan) [20,0]; 24.8.16 Bristol Rovers (loan) [16,0]; 18.9.17 Port Vale (loan) [8,0]; 8.12.17 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [4,0]; 25.6.22 Aberdeen (free). Paul Simpson, First Team Coach at Derby County enthused that “he looks like he could be a good keeper” and, with two caps for the Netherlands at Under-15 level as well as Under-16 and Under-17 representation, Kelle Roos came to English football with a strong reputation. Tall, dominant and a powerful kicker, he had initially joined PSV at the age of thirteen after playing for three separate clubs in Nijmegen. He conceded just six goals in nine Conference matches with Nuneaton Town, his five clean sheets including one on his début against Chester City. Another clean sheet marked his first start with Derby County, five cup-ties proving the extent of his experience before he was sent out on various loan spells. Roos conceded ten goals for bottom-of-the-table Championship side Rotherham United, but enjoyed far more success with AFC Wimbledon, where he played against Rovers at The Mem in March 2016 and at Wembley two months later, as his side defeated Plymouth Argyle 2-0 in the play-off final to join Rovers in promotion to League One. Tall and confident, he formed part of a successful Rovers back-line, yet was also between the sticks when the Gas lost 4-0 at Millwall and 5-1 at home to Charlton Athletic in November 2016. Subsequently, his spell at Vale Park saw him operate as a team-mate of the future Rovers defender James Gibbons. Formerly a student at JCU in Tilburg, his elder brother Jord is trainer at Juliana 31 and Kelle’s girlfriend Nadine Hanssen played for FC Utrecht Ladies. Kelle Roos had appeared in an EFL Trophy game against Reading as well as an abandoned League encounter at Swindon before he made his League bow for Rovers, but lost his place to Will Puddy and returned to Derby. During the 2018-19 season, though, particularly under the management of Frank Lampard, Roos claimed a regular place in a successful Derby side, reaching the play-off final where he played in the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Wembley in May 2019. The following season, shortly after he was joined at Derby by Wayne Rooney, Roos played as the Championship side won 1-0 away to Premier League Crystal Palace in the FA Cup in January 2020. He was on the pitch when, in May 2021, an equaliser two minutes from time against Sheffield Wednesday, secured a 3-3 draw and enabled Rooney’s Derby to retain their second-tier status. He was sent off against Sheffield United in September 2021 and Derby were relegated to third-tier football that campaign. |
No 293. (Bill) William Charles Roost. 1948-57.
Born, 22.3.1924, Bristol. Died, 10.2.2013, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 15.4.49 v Reading. Career: St Michael’s School; Royal Navy; 1947 Dursley; Stonehouse; Bristol City (trial); 19.9.48 Bristol Rovers (professional, 23.9.48) [178,49]; 17.5.57 Swindon Town [18,3]; 8.9.59 Yeovil Town (trial); December 1959 Stonehouse; 16.1.60 Minehead (retired, 1963). Whilst Rovers relied on Geoff Bradford and Vic Lambden for the goals which shot the club to glory in the immediate post-war period, local boy Bill Roost was scoring prolifically in the background. This unsung hero of a golden era in the club’s history undoubtedly played a critical rôle as the side reached its first FA Cup quarter-final in 1951 and secured the Third Division (South) title in the spring of 1953. Bill “Ginger” Roost, the tenth of eleven children to Oliver William Roost (1881-1955) and Emily Rosina Lewis (1889-1956), who had married in Bristol in 1909, worked at Hoffmann’s Ballbearing Company in Stonehouse and, having been persuaded to play for Dursley, whose captain lived next door to Roost’s sister, he was then paid £1 a week as captain of Stonehouse. Having joined Rovers after impressing for Stonehouse in a fixture against Soundwell, he scored on his reserve team début against Coventry City and was top scorer for the reserves during 1948-49, his first season with the club, accumulating eleven goals. He scored after just four minutes of his Rovers League début and added a second as Reading were defeated 4-1, before being Rovers’ leading scorer in the 1949-50 campaign, his thirteen goals coming in just 28 League fixtures. A good squad member, whose inclusion in the side was often rewarded with goals, Roost supported Bradford’s immense talent and contributed in his own way. A first-minute goal put Rovers on course in an FA Cup-tie with Orient in November 1952 and a freak goal from near the corner-flag eased Rovers to another FA Cup victory, this time over First Division Portsmouth, in January 1955. By this stage, Roost had helped Rovers gain promotion to second-tier football and was continuing to score at this level. Moving to Swindon, his goals all came in the same match, a hat-trick in a 3-1 victory at Shrewsbury in December 1957 and he scored on his Minehead début at Barnstaple Town in January 1960. Ninety games for the Somerset club produced 21 goals, Roost being fined £3.3.0 by the Somerset FA following an incident in an October 1960 fixture against Bridgwater Town and he played his final game away to Portland United in February 1963. In April 1962, during the course of a 4-0 victory over Taunton Town, he scored Minehead’s 1,000th Western League goal. Injured playing for Rovers’ Ex-Players against City’s Former Stars in Jack Connor’s testimonial game in 1967, Roost lived in Whitehall and ran the “Black Horse” in St George for five years before working as a yard foreman for Power Scaffolding. Married to Florence Frances Starr (1924-99) in 1949, the daughter of Henry Starr (1887-1945) and Elizabeth Ann Way (1887-1971), he had two sons, Geoff and Chris, the elder winning England Youth amateur caps against Ireland and Wales and, latterly widowed, Bill Roost continued to live in St George until his death at the age of eighty-eight. |
No 45. Henry Bernard Rose. 1922-23.
Born, 27.3.1900, Reading. Died 1.10.1941, Llangollen. 5’ 8”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 27.1.23 v Northampton Town. Career: Reading Liberal Club; Imperial FC; May 1919 Reading (professional, 1.3.20) [4,0]; 10.5.21 Bristol Rovers (trial); 30.6.22 Bristol Rovers [14,0]; July 1924 Mid-Rhondda United; 1925-26 Ajax Amsterdam (manager); July 1927 Ebbw Vale. Only one Rovers player had managed Ajax Amsterdam and, to be fair, that club was still very much in an embryonic form when Harold Rose coached them for one season. Rose can be found on the 1901 census at 37 Curzon Street in Reading, the only child at that time of a Hastings-born tailor, George Henry Rose, and his Oxford-born wife Edith Mary Williams, whom he had married in 1899. Not making Reading’s Southern League side, he broke briefly into the team after the Royals were elected to the Football League in 1920, including both fixtures in 1920-21 against Brentford, and replaced Jock Rutherford for one Rovers game in January 1923. Beginning the 1923-24 season as the first-choice centre-half, despite his stature, Rose lost his place to Bob Storer and was then injured playing for the reserves against Plymouth Argyle’s second string in January 1924, recovering to ease the side to the Bristol Charity League championship. Rose married Beatrice Ward (1902-50) in the summer of 1923 and they ran the Royal Hotel in Llangollen, where he died at the young age of forty-one. |
No 702. Richard Alan Rose. 2002-03.
Born, 8.9.1982, Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells. 6’; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 14.12.02 v Oxford United. Career: 1996 Gillingham (professional, 1.8.00) [44+14,0]; 22.1.02 Longford Town (loan); 13.12.02 Bristol Rovers (loan) [9,0]; 29.6.06 Hereford United (free) [154+11,4]; 1.8.11 Dagenham and Redbridge (free) [9+1,1]; 6.8.12 Dartford; 20.6.13 Whitehawk (free); 23.10.13 Maidstone United (loan); 25.6.14 Hastings United (free, to 25.4.15). Tall, versatile defender Richard Rose was, by common consent, the best player on the field on his Rovers début, but he could not prevent the club from slipping to its seventh consecutive League defeat. Having made his Gillingham début in a 2-1 defeat at Crewe in April 2001, Rose played in four games in Ireland before joining Rovers and later gave sterling service to Hereford. A team-mate at Edgar Street of Alex Jeannin, he was in the Hereford side which lost to two quick-fire Richard Walker goals in Rovers’ 2006-07 promotion season and appeared in both games in the 2008-09 season, Rovers winning 6-1 at home and a Rickie Lambert hat-trick securing a 3-0 away victory. The Bulls were relegated, but Rose’s revenge was swift, as Hereford eliminated Rovers from the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on penalties in September 2009. A cousin of the Eastenders actor Ricky Groves and the son of Alan Rose and Carôle Schumann, Rose scored his only goal for Dagenham in their 2-1 win at home to Crewe in October 2011 and, his final two League games ending in 5-0 defeats, he later scored once in 36 games for Dartford, before appearing without scoring in 14(+3) Conference North fixture with Whitehawk. He appeared in seven Ryman League games and two FA Trophy ties during a two-month loan spell with Maidstone United. Rose was sent off twenty minutes from the end of a 2-1 Ryman League defeat at Burgess Hill Town in January 2015, but played in 39 Ryman League matches that campaign for Hastings United, a final-day draw at Walton and Hersham ensuring survival from relegation. His partner Sarah Winter gave birth to their first child in August 2011. |
No 678. Neil James Ross. 2001-02.
Born, 10.8.1982, Leeds. 6’ 1”; 12 st 2 lbs. Début: 23.10.01 v Exeter City. Career: Leeds United (professional, 12.8.99); 28.1.00 Stockport County (free) [3+6,2]; 23.10.01 Bristol Rovers (loan) [2+3,0]; 15.3.02 Wuhan Red Heart (loan); 10.1.03 Kidderminster Harriers (trial); 10.1.03 Macclesfield Town (£30,000) [7+7,0]; 20.9.03 Northwich Victoria (loan); 13.8.04 Tamworth (loan); 12.11.04 Halifax Town (free); 30.5.05 Alfreton Town (free); 17.3.06 Bradford Park Avenue (loan); 6.6.06 Bradford Park Avenue (free); 20.3.07 Ossett Town; 25.7.07 Ilkeston Town (free); 15.11.07 Buxton; 9.7.08 Halifax Town; 26.10.09 Harrogate Railway Athletic; 29.8.13 Leeds United Ladies FC (manager); 23.5.20 Farsley Celtic (Under-23 Academy manager; 9.11.21 manager, to 27.1.22); 23.7.22 FC Bruno Magpies (assistant coach). Unable to make the grade at Elland Road, tall striker Neil Ross scored five goals for Stockport reserves in seven matches and burst into their League side. He scored the third equaliser in a 3-3 draw at Gillingham and, following County’s relegation to Division Two in 2001-02 alongside Ali Gibb, Aaron Lescott and Lee Jones, he also scored in the home victory over Wycombe Wanderers. Playing for Rovers on the evening of the day he joined, he was booked at Kidderminster and soon went on loan to Chinese football. In the Macclesfield side which drew 1-1 with Rovers in February 2003, he scored a début goal alongside Mark Foran as Victoria drew 1-1 with Morecambe and later scored Park Avenue’s fifth goal in an 8-0 win against Runcorn Halton in April 2006 as well as the 31st-minute winner in the 2006 League President’s Cup Final against his future club, Ilkeston. After two goals in seven Conference games at Tamworth and four, including an exquisite chip against Canvey Island, in 4(+8) matches for Halifax, he added ten goals in 30 fixtures with Buxton, his début coming at Stamford in November 2007. His Ilkeston début was the goalless draw with Ashton United in the Unibond Premier League in August 2007 and he scored ten goals for that club. After a dislocated knee at Halifax indicated his playing career was over, Ross spent time in the Middle East before managing Leeds United’s women’s team and, in October 2013, he set up ProTots in West Yorkshire, a training programme for two- to six-year-olds, learning the basics of football alongside balance and co-ordination skills and he has worked as Community Sports Development Officer at OSCA Foundation Ltd, Halifax. In 2022 he took on a job as assistant coach at the Gibraltarian side Bruno Magpies. He lives with his wife Michaella and daughter Amelie, born in 2010, in the Yorkshire village of Birkenshaw. |
No 77. Albert Edward Rotherham. 1925-29.
Born, 26.10.1903, Darlaston. Died, 1966, Chipping Sodbury. 5’ 8½”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 24.10.25 v Watford. Career: Dorsett Road School; F.H. Lloyd’s AFC; February 1923 Darlaston; 1923 Wednesbury Town; July 1923 Cradley Heath; July 1924 Darlaston; 11.6.25 Bristol Rovers [47,0]; 13.6.29 Coventry City (£100); January 1930 Bath City; July 1931 Gillingham [4,0] (to 1932). Apocryphal tales describe how Albert Rotherham had a habit of popping into a local hostelry for a couple of pints over Saturday lunch, then appearing on the pitch in a Rovers shirt. The authenticity at this distance, of course, cannot be proved but it describes an era very distant from that of the modern footballer’s diet and timetabled pre-match routine. Rotherham, at school with Rovers’ Jabez Foster, was the youngest of seven children living with his widowed mother Mary Rotherham, a bolt turner by profession, in the 1911 census, and played regularly in the Birmingham and District league before his arrival at Eastville. A goalkeeper at school, he developed into a fine wing-half and occasional full-back, who scored just once, from a penalty in the FA Cup against Wellingborough Town in November 1928. The following month he was given a torrid afternoon against his future club by Coventry’s Ernie Toseland (1905-87), who ran him ragged and scored a fine goal. When Rovers transfer-listed Rotherham, they placed a value of £400 on his head and, although Southampton and Huddersfield Town expressed interest, he went for a quarter of that price to a club who then never played him. There were hints he would join Dartford, but instead he played alongside Rovers players Joe Walter, Billy Compton and Ernie Sambidge in the Bath City side that won the Southern League championship in 1929-30. In November 1943 he was running the North View Inn in Fox Road, Easton, as befitted his alleged pre-match adventures and, it also being known that he married Lucy Worlock in Bristol that year, it is worth noting that Lucy Rotherham is registered as the publican there from 1950 to 1953. |
No 473. Thomas Alan Routledge. 1980-81.
Born, 6.5.1960, Wallsend. 5’ 9”; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 17.1.81 v Grimsby Town. Career: Wallsend Boys’ Club; Bath University; August 1980 Bristol Rovers (released, March 1982) [0+1,0]; August 1983 Northwood; October 1984 Kingsbury Town. Strong and tough full-back Alan Routledge made his début for Rovers reserves away to Orient reserves in August 1980, after leaving Bath University. His 28 reserve team games in the 1980-81 season included a goal in a 2-1 victory over West Ham reserves that April and earned a first-team call-up during the relegation campaign. Replacing Mark Hughes for the final thirty minutes of a 2-0 defeat at Grimsby, he was also an unused substitute against Bristol City a fortnight later. The son of Alex Routledge and Alma Robinson, Routledge “possessed good pace … and an excellent left foot” and scored four goals in seventeen games with Northwood before joining Isthmian League Kingsbury Town. Prior to that, he had played alongside Steve Bruce and the future Rovers winger Tony Sealy at Wallsend Boys’ Club. Armed with a degree in Materials Science, he worked from 1991 for Guardtech Cleaners and is married to Karen Lesley Routledge and living in Chilworth, Hampshire, he and his wife being directors of U4 Global Solutions Limited. |
No 157. William Routledge. 1931-34.
Born, 28.10.1907, Haltwhistle, Northumberland. Died, 18.5.1972, Stakeford, Northumberland. 6’; 12 st 10 lbs. Début: 29.8.31 v Bournemouth. Career: Stakeford United; August 1927 South Shields; June 1928 Crystal Palace; August 1929 Bangor City; February 1930 Colwyn Bay United; May 1930 Chelsea; 8.5.31 Bristol Rovers (professional, September 1931) [64,5]; 21.5.34 York City [78,1]; May 1936 Carlisle United [16,0]; May 1937 Ashington; February 1939 St Mirren. Having made no League appearances prior to his arrival at Eastville, Bill Routledge was grateful that Rovers saw fit to gamble on his alleged 54 Welsh League goals at Colwyn Bay and try him as an inside-forward and longer term as a wing-half. An England Schoolboy international, he was also a professional athlete in Northumberland, once winning the princely sum of £100 in prize money and being excused pre-season training with Rovers to participate in the prestigious Powderhall Sprint. Whilst at Rovers, he won the 200 yards race and the cup for most points at an athletics meeting held at Eastville in August 1933. York City’s captain, his consistent form drew attention from Spurs and he was a team-mate at Bootham Crescent of Rovers’ Maurice Dando and Jack Eyres. He also featured in the game in February 1936 when York lost 12-0 at Chester in Division Three (North), but could not make the first-team at St Mirren. The fourth son of James Routledge (1876-1945) and Isabella Cockburn (1880-1966) of 11 North Terrace, Bedlington and baptised as “Willie Routledge”, he worked as a Physical Training Advisor in the Royal Air Force during World War Two. Prior to that, he was a credit draper living at 7 Louvain Terrace, Guide Post, Northumberland with his wife Maggie and daughter Joan. |
No 90. Joseph Rowley. 1926-28.
Born, 13.10.1899, Wellington, Shropshire. Died, 1982, Shrewsbury. 5’ 10”; 12 st. Début: 28.8.26 v Luton Town. Career: Talbot Staed; November 1919 Wellington St George’s; August 1921 Oakengates Town; October 1922 Coventry City [148,2]; 6.8.26 Bristol Rovers (£400) [61,1]; October 1928 Oakengates Town; December 1928 Oswestry Town; November 1934 Oakengates Town. With a positive mental approach and a charming personality, right-half Joe Rowley was a natural selection as Rovers’ club captain. The eldest of five children to Joseph Rowley and Eliza Jane Hogg (1872-1952), his childhood was spent at 45 Fellwright Street, Burslem, where his father worked as a closet maker. Having left Oakengates for the first time as they charged towards the Birmingham Combination title in 1922-23, Rowley spent three seasons in Division Two and one in Division Three (North) with Coventry and brought a wealth of experience to Eastville. Although consistent in his play, he scored just one goal for Rovers, with a tenth-minute strike as the club went 3-0 ahead inside seventeen minutes at Crystal Palace in March 1927, only for the home side to recover and win an enthralling game 7-4, Percy Cherrett (1899-1984) completing a second-half hat-trick. He also scored for Coventry City in Division Three (North) in a 4-1 defeat at Nelson in February 1926 and a 5-2 home victory against Hartlepool United two months later. |
No 415. John Robert Rudge. 1971-75.
Born, 21.10.1944, Wolverhampton. 6’; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 26.2.72 v Walsall. Career: Wolverhampton Wanderers (juniors); April 1960 Huddersfield Town (professional, November 1961) [5,0]; December 1966 Carlisle United [45+5,16]; 22.1.69 Torquay United (£7,000) [93+2,35]; 17.2.72 Bristol Rovers (exchange for Robin Stubbs) [50+20,17]; 4.3.75 Bournemouth (£6,000) [18+3,2]; April 1977 Torquay United (coach); 7.1.80 Port Vale (coach; assistant manager, December 1980; manager, 5.12.83-18.1.99); July 1999 Stoke City (general manager; director of football; caretaker manager, 28.6.05; director of football, 13.6.06-22.5.13); 4.10.17 Port Vale (football advisor). There was a time before Tony Pulis, when another former Rovers player was a great manager in the Potteries. John Rudge, a tall, balding, powerful striker who became a tactical man-manager at Vale Park, was an influential figure for so many youngsters entering the game. “Honest endeavour and goal-scoring ability” (Torbay Express and Herald) were the prime qualities of this striker whose League début came for Huddersfield against Swansea Town in Division Two in May 1963. A team-mate of Gordon Marsland at Carlisle, he hit a hat-trick in May 1967 as the Cumbrian side defeated Bolton Wanderers 6-1, and he featured in a shock win at Newcastle in the third round of the FA Cup in January 1968. Rudge appeared alongside Robin Stubbs at Torquay and, the Gulls’ top scorer in 1970-71, suffered relegation to the basement division in the spring of 1972. Joining Rovers in a deal involving Stubbs and moving into accommodation in Downend, Rudge proved he could support Bruce Bannister’s consistent goal-scoring and he added four goals as Rovers secured promotion from Division Three in the 1973-74 campaign, going on an undefeated 32-match run in the process. He had also tapped home an equaliser on the hour mark, after Alec Stepney had parried Brian Godfrey’s drive, to earn a draw with Manchester United in the League Cup; in the Old Trafford replay, Rudge glanced Lindsay Parsons’ cross home after thirty minutes to set Rovers up for the astonishing 2-1 victory. Although he did not score in the second-tier for Rovers, he did head home a last-gasp right-wing corner past John Jackson at the Muller Road End at Eastville in November 1974, only for referee Mike Taylor to have blown for time as the ball was in mid-air, the match with Orient finishing goalless. An almost twenty-year tenure at Vale Park included 748 League games, three promotions and three trips to Wembley, Vale winning the TNT tournament in 1992, reaching the Autoglass Trophy Final against Stockport County twelve months later and losing 5-2 to Genoa in the Anglo-Italian Cup Final at Wembley in March 1996. Moving from Burslem to Stoke, he worked as part of the Tony Pulis regime which established City as a respected Premier League side and took them to the 2011 FA Cup Final at Wembley. The younger child of Frank Rudge and Marie Baker, who had married in Wolverhampton in 1936, John Rudge married Dellice Kelf, the daughter of Leslie Kelf and Gladys Whitehurst, and they have two daughters and three grandchildren. |
No 92. John Rumney. 1926-27.
Born, 1.5.1898, Dipton, Co Durham, Died, 1969, York. 5’ 10”; 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 30.8.26 v Merthyr Town. Career: September 1919 Leadgate Park; September 1920 Annfield Plain; June 1921 Leadgate Park; West Stanley; July 1922 Preston Colliery; January 1923 Hull City [13,4]; May 1924 Chesterfield [11,4]; May 1925 Merthyr Town [39,24]; 20.5.26 Bristol Rovers [8,2]; Merthyr Town; July 1927 Consett; September 1929 Chester-le-Street; October 1930 Dipton United. Perhaps it is because he was playing against his former club, but Jack Rumney made a dramatic start to his Rovers career, scoring twice against Merthyr on his début, but never again found the net in League football. Hull having beaten Chelsea to his signature, he was Merthyr’s top scorer in 1925-26, his 24 League goals including a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over Watford in October 1925 and a goal against Rovers when the sides met that September. He also scored in his first three Chesterfield games, the opening one coming at Ashington. During World War One, he had served in the Durham Light Infantry and the Royal Garrison Artillery. The fifth of nine children to a miner from Tow Law, John Rumney (1847-1916, who had previously fathered twelve children with his first wife, Jane Ann Swainestone, 1851-93), and his wife, Devon-born Elizabeth Ann Ellis (1868-1931) of 46 Pike Street, Dipton, Jack married Laura Hall in 1922. They had a daughter Thora (1924-93), who married Maurice Jarvis (1918-78) in Bristol in 1944 and had two children of her own, followed by twins Florence and John in 1926. After the twins’ birth, Laura was seriously ill and Jack’s form understandably dipped, although he did score a hat-trick when the reserves defeated Mid-Rhondda United 6-0 at the end of October 1926. Within a few months, the family had moved back to the north-east. |
No 532. David Graham Rushbury. 1986-87.
Born, 20.2.1956, Wolverhampton. 5’ 10”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 28.2.87 v Notts County. Career: St Chad’s College; Staffordshire Boys; 1972 West Bromwich Albion (professional, February 1974) [28,0]; 4.11.76 Sheffield Wednesday (£22,500) [111+1,7]; 26.7.79 Swansea City (£60,000) [51+1,0]; 8.8.81 Carlisle United (£40,000) [120+9,1]; 21.3.85 Gillingham (£15,000) [12,0]; 8.7.85 Doncaster Rovers (£10,000) [66,2]; 21.2.87 Cambridge United (loan) [1,0]; 26.2.87 Bristol Rovers (free) [14+2,0]; July 1987 Goole Town (free); January 1989 Chesterfield (physiotherapist; caretaker manager, 1.1.02; manager, 22.2.02-21.4.03); 14.5.03 Alfreton Town (Director of Football). Full-back Dave Rushbury had played against Rovers for four different clubs in the League before his brief stint helping the club avoid relegation to the basement division in the spring of 1987. In the West Brom side that faced Rovers in November 1974 and the Swansea side which lost to Miah Dennehy’s hat-trick on Boxing Day 1979, he re-appeared for Carlisle and Doncaster through the 1980s, scoring on consecutive Saturdays in September 1986 for Donny against Newport and York. His long playing career also featured working under managers such as Don Howe (1935-2015), John Toshack, Billy Bremner (1942-97) and Bobby Gould as well as playing alongside Jeff Astle (1942-2002), Ian Callaghan and Peter Beardsley. He also played in all five fixtures of Wednesday’s epic FA Cup third-round clash with Arsenal in January 1979, these games becoming one of the reasons multiple replays became a thing of the past, scoring in a 3-3 draw in the third replay. Converted at Wednesday from a marauding midfielder into a cultured full-back, Rushbury found goals thereafter few and far between, his sole Carlisle strike, where he played alongside Bob Lee and Paul Bannon, coming against Barnsley over Christmas 1983. Subsequently, he scored twice in 46 HFS Loans League games with Goole Town, was amongst the backroom staff at Chesterfield when they reached their sole FA Cup semi-final in 1997 and arrived at Alfreton in time for their Derbyshire Centenary Cup-tie with Chesterfield. Prior to that, he had helped Goole Town secure their first trophy in thirty years, when they won the Northern Premier League Cup. Promoted as a player at Swansea and at Carlisle, he enjoyed the same experience in his rôle at Chesterfield, received his coaching “A” badge and lectured for the Football Association, working also as a local radio commentator. Having initially hoped to teach Physical Education, Rushbury graduated in Sports Science in 2003 from Alsager College and now lectures at Chesterfield College. The son of Derek Rushbury, son of John Rushbury and Eva Harris, and of Margaret Bellingham, the daughter of John Bellingham and Catherine O’Connor, Dave Rushbury has two sons and a daughter from his first marriage and lives with his second wife Samantha in Chesterfield. His children have followed him into sports-related jobs, for his sons Andy and Ian both have degrees in Sports Science, Andy having played alongside John Taylor, Trevor Challis and Anwar U’ddin at Telford, and his daughter Michelle works as a physiotherapist. |
No 906. Luke Russe. 2017-18.
Born, 19.7.1999, Bristol. 5’ 5”; 10 st 1 lb. Début: 3.3.18 v MK Dons. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, 20.4.17) [1+2,0]; 25.1.19 Gloucester City (loan); 15.8.19 Gloucester City (loan); 16.1.20 Chippenham Town (loan); 3.8.20 Chippenham Town (free). A gifted and industrious midfielder who made his first appearance in the senior side in the 5-1 Football League Trophy triumph at Wycombe Wanderers in August 2017, replacing Byron Moore after seventy-one minutes, Luke Russe was Rovers’ youth team’s Player of the Year for 2016-17. He started the following game in that tournament against West Ham United and had earlier impressed in the pre-season friendly away to Yeovil Town. A League bow soon followed in the victory away to MK Dons in March 2018. He later appeared in 21 Conference South games with Gloucester City, opening the scoring after twenty-six minutes of a 2-1 home defeat against Concord Rangers in March 2019 and adding goals in 2019-20 against both Guiseley and Telford; he scored four goals in 62(+2) National League South appearances with Chippenham Town, helping them to the play-offs in May 2022, where they lost to Ebbsfleet United. In November 2022 he was alongside Tom Mehew and Harvey Greenslade in the Chippenham side which shocked League One Lincoln City in the first round of the FA Cup, defeating them 1-0. Descending from an Italian Antonio Rossi (1851-1926), who was living in Old Market by 1911, his grandfather Rickie Russe was a bus driver at the Winterstoke Road depot and, the son of Bill Russe and Gladys Matthews, had married Gillian Baldwin in 1973; their elder child, Jeremy, Luke’s father, married Emma Louise Applin in 1998. |
No 99. Cecil John Russell. 1927-28.
Born, 19.6.1904, Northfield, Birmingham. Died, 10.12.1995, Blackwell, Bromsgrove. 5’ 10½”; 11 st. Début: 7.9.27 v Plymouth Argyle. Career: King’s Norton Council School; Northfield Institute; Bourneville; Bromsgrove Rovers; 5.2.24 Birmingham [26,1]; 14.6.27 Bristol Rovers [22,6]; July 1928 Worcester City; 12.5.30 Bournemouth [138,43]; 15.6.34 Luton Town [8,1]; 5.10.34 Norwich City [56,23]; 22.5.36 Birmingham (coach); 6.5.36 Worcester City; 2.12.38 Shirley Town (player-manager); June 1939 Solihull Town (director). A prolific goal-scorer wherever he went, Jack Russell enjoyed one season at Eastville. With an alleged school record of 48 goals in just eleven matches, Russell then broke a leg playing for Birmingham against Cardiff City in January 1925 and was out of the game for eleven months. After Rovers, he top-scored at Worcester City in 1929-30, who were Birmingham and District League champions in both 1928-29 and 1929-30. A very rich vein of form at Bournemouth saw Russell score four times in a League game on two occasions in January 1933, Orient and Bristol City being the victims, having scored a hat-trick the previous month against Crystal Palace. Unsurprisingly, he was the Cherries’ top scorer two seasons in succession; he had, however, only scored five goals in 1930-31, although two of these had come against Rovers. Once a broken collarbone, sustained against Luton in March 1933, cut short his Bournemouth career, he scored in Luton’s 2-1 home defeat against Charlton Athletic in September 1934 before becoming Norwich’s recognised penalty-taker, scoring five times from the spot and appearing in the first match ever played at Carrow Road. On Boxing Day 1934 his two second-half goals inspired the Canaries to recover a two-goal half-time deficit and draw 3-3 with Nottingham Forest. Married over Easter 1927 to Evelyn Green, Jack Russell later ran the Coach and Horses public house in Worcester and lived to the age of ninety-one. |
No 148. George Henry Russell. 1930-32.
Born, 1.8.1902, Atherstone, Warwickshire. Died, 22.10.1963, Birmingham. 5’ 10”; 12 st 10 lbs. Début: 17.1.31 v Crystal Palace. Career: Atherstone Swifts; 7th Lancers; Atherstone Town; May 1925 Portsmouth; June 1926 Watford (free) [12,1]; May 1927 Northampton Town (free) [51,0]; 12.1.31 Bristol Rovers (£110) [55,1]; 1932 Atherstone Town (trial); August 1932 Cardiff City (trial); 2.12.32 Cardiff City (free) [56,1]; August 1934 Newport County [16,0]; March 1935 Stafford Rangers; 9.9.35 Nuneaton Town; 2.4.36 Bangor City (player-manager); 4.2.37 Cradley Heath; 18.2.37 Atherstone Town; August 1938 Stafford Rangers (to May 1939). Captain Albert Prince-Cox’s first signing for Rovers was full-back George Russell, a “fearless and resolute tackler”. It is believed that he was the fifth of thirteen children to George Russell and Mary Deeming (1880-1942) and he made similar appearance totals on the books of Northampton, Cardiff and Rovers, scoring two of his three League goals against the Cobblers, one of his teams. Indeed, having suffered the agony of a 6-0 defeat over Christmas 1931, when he returned to Northampton in a Rovers shirt, it must have been a relief to score what amounted to his sole League strike for Rovers in the return fixture, as Rovers recorded a 3-2 win before a 5,000 crowd at Eastville. He also missed a penalty in a blizzard against Bournemouth in February 1931. Russell played alongside eight different full-back partners for Rovers during his relatively brief spell with the club. Having scored a penalty for Watford against Northampton, he later played for Cardiff, returning in the Bluebirds’ side for a match at Eastville in January 1933, when his accidental collision with Tommy Cook broke his opponent’s collar-bone and unintentionally ended the former England international’s career. A total of 26 games for Nuneaton in the Birmingham League brought two goals, a header from a corner away to Cannock Town in September 1935 and a long-range free-kick at home to Rhyl Athletic the following month, and he also helped his side secure the Nuneaton Hospital Cup that season; in an injury crisis, he even played in goal for the January 1936 fixture at Stourbridge, a 5-1 defeat. His Stafford début came at left-back against Oswestry Town in August 1938. George Russell’s marriage to Blanche Chamberlain (1905-1932) produced three sons and a daughter, whom he brought up single-handedly after he was widowed very young, and he later served in wartime as a member of the 16th/5th Lancers, representing them in Army football in Ireland, Egypt, England, Palestine, India, Pakistan and China as well as winning the Trades Cup. |
No 42. John Rutherford. 1922-23.
Born, 1892, Netherton, Northumberland. Died, 14.9.30, Barrington Colliery, Northumberland. 6’; 11 st CH Début: 10.10.22 v Southend United Career: Bebside Gordon; Choppington United; Blyth Spartans; 1912 Ashington; January 1913 Tottenham Hotspur; October 1915 Royal Garrison Artillery; May 1919 Luton Town; 19.5.20 Brighton [29,2]; June 1921 Pennsylvania (USA) (coach); August 1921 Cardiff City; 18.9.22 Bristol Rovers [29,1]; August 1923 Mold (£250); July 1924 York City; November 1924 Gillingham [84,2] (to 1927). “Wire” Rutherford was so named because he was the first player whose transfer had been arranged by wire, that is to say whilst crossing the Atlantic Ocean by boat. His identity is uncertain and it is likely that he is either the John Rutherford born in Berwick on 4th September 1892 or the man of the same name born in Hexham on 5th May 1892. What is certain is that he was a resolute defender, tall and strong, tough in the tackle and well-respected in footballing circles. Having scored five goals in 29 Southern League fixtures for Luton, he appeared for three Football League clubs as well as in eight games in the Midland League and in three FA Cup-ties for York City, his first appearance coming in the 1-0 home victory over Scunthorpe United in September 1924. A World War One guest with Blyth Spartans, Scotswood and South Shields, he also represented a British team against continental army sides and, after the war, tried his hand at coaching in the States. He was sent off at Eastville in September 1920, when Rovers defeated Brighton 3-1 in the Football League. A Rovers reserves début against Reading in September 1922 soon led to a first-team call-up and Rutherford scored his solitary Rovers goal in the 3-3 draw at home to Exeter City on Christmas Day 1922, when the England cricketer Wally Hammond also scored. With Rovers, he missed a penalty against stand-in goalkeeper Hoar in February 1923, after Luton’s custodian Gibbon had left the field injured after just thirty minutes. He retired from football in 1927 through ill health and died at the age of thirty-eight. |
No 730. Robert Paul Ryan. 2004-07.
Born, 16.5.1977, Dublin. 5’ 10”; 12 st. Début: 7.8.04 v Mansfield Town. Career: 1.8.93 Belvedere; 26.7.94 Huddersfield Town (free) [12+3,0]; 30.1.98 Millwall (£10,000) [211+17,2]; 9.7.04 Bristol Rovers (free) [53+1,0]; June 2007 Brentford (trial); June 2007 Northampton Town (trial); June 2007 Dagenham and Redbridge (trial); 4.7.07 Welling United (free); 1.8.08 Ashford Town (free); 24.10.10 Fisher Athletic (free); 5.12.08 Croydon Athletic (free). Shortly after marking Cristiano Ronaldo in the FA Cup Final, strong-tackling left-back Robbie Ryan joined Rovers on a free transfer. After over 200 League appearances for the Lions, he was in their side for the club’s first ever appearance in the showpiece final and performed well as Manchester United won 3-0 to lift the trophy. Emerging from Irish football, having represented his country at Schoolboy and Youth level, helping the Republic of Ireland finish third in the 1997 FIFA World Youth championships and winning twelve Under-21 caps for the Republic, Ryan made his League début in Huddersfield’s win at Ipswich in September 1996 and became a household name with Millwall. He played three times against Rovers, the Lions winning all three fixtures, and helped Millwall to the Division Two championship in 2000-01. Ousting Jamie Stuart from the side, he proved highly popular at The New Den, scored his first Football League goal on Boxing Day 2002, a 41st-minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Gillingham, and ended his Millwall career in the FA Cup Final. Dependable and solid in the tackle, Ryan was sent off on Boxing Day 2004 after just four minutes, the second fastest red card in Rovers’ history, after handling a shot on the goal-line at home to Orient. After 36 games for Welling, he played in 8(+1) Isthmian Leahue matches with Ashford and three times for Fisher. Sent off in the first of his eighteen games for Croydon, he partnered Danny Boxall at full-back and played in the 2009 London Senior Cup Final, which was lost to Hendon before, now living in Kent with his partner and daughter, taking up work with London Underground as a cable linesman. |
No 365. Hugh Johnston Ryden. 1962-63.
b 7.4.1943 Dumbarton 5’ 8½”; 10 st 11 lbs IF Début: 28.8.62 v Northampton Town Career: St Patrick’s High School, Dumbarton; Dawson and Downie; Yoker Athletic; May 1960 Tottenham Hotspur (trial); October 1960 Leeds United (£500); 26.5.62 Bristol Rovers (£1,000) [8,4]; 6.7.63 Morton (trial); 27.7.63 Stockport County (free); June 1964 Chester (free) [140+1,44]; 11.11.67 Halifax Town (£14,000) [54+1,6]; December 1969 Stockport County (free) [150+12,24]; August 1973 Darwen; March 1975 Northwich Victoria; August 1975 Witton Albion; October 1975 Droylsden; 1.1.76 Stockport County (youth team manager). There were nine Ryden children in all, five of whom enjoyed footballing careers: George (1940-2021) played for Dundee and St Johnstone, representing the former in the 1964 Scottish Cup Final; John (1931-2013) was with Accrington Stanley, Spurs, Watford and Alloa Athletic; Tommy and Eddie were with Duntocher Hibernian. Hugh Ryden so impressed Leeds’ scouts that Billy Bremner (1942-97) and Norman Hunter (1943-2020) were despatched to Leeds station to collect the apprentice painter and decorator on his arrival in 1960 but, unable to make the League side, he made his League bow at Eastville. During his spell with Rovers, he scored one of the goals in the controversial 2-2 draw at Bradford Park Avenue, after which Esmond Million and Keith Williams were both suspended for life. A club record signing at Halifax, he was in the Stockport side which lost 1-0 at Eastville in April 1970 and was relegated to Division Four at the end of that season. One highlight of his time at Stockport, where the manager who signed him was the former Rovers full-back Brian Doyle, was scoring the Fourth Division side’s winning goal in a League Cup-tie away to top-flight Crystal Palace in September 1972; County then defeated a West Ham side including Bobby Moore (1941-93) in the next round. He scored a brace for Stockport against both Lincoln City and Barrow during the 1963-64 campaign. Following his League career, Ryden played twice in the Northern Premier League with Victoria and made four appearances with Darwen before working for a car hire firm, in sales with Gordon Ford of Stockport, who sponsored the Hatters’ shirt, and in a national mobility scheme to support drivers with disabilities. During his first season at Stockport, where Hugh Ryden still lives, he met Susan Mantle and their marriage produced a son Scott and has led to two grandchildren, McKenzie and Jessica. He had a double hip replacement and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in February 2020; as issues associated with heading heavy footballs and its link with early forms of dementia became more substantiated, Susan’s case in caring for Hugh, coupled with the fact the his two late footballing brothers, George and John, were cared for by their wives, Lina and Mary, for many years, brought a harrowing topic home to Rovers’ supporters. |