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Bobby Roberts (footballer)

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Bobby Roberts
Personal information
Full name Robert Roberts[1]
Date of birth (1940-09-02) 2 September 1940 (age 84)
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1963 Motherwell 91 (26)
1963–1970 Leicester City 230 (25)
1970–1972 Mansfield Town 80 (4)
1972–1973 Coventry City 2 (0)
1983 Wrexham 0 (0)
Total 403 (55)
International career
1963 Scottish League XI[3] 1 (0)
Managerial career
1972–1973 Coventry City (Player-Coach)
1975–1982 Colchester United
1982–1985 Wrexham
1987–1988 Grimsby Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11:17, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Robert Roberts (born 2 September 1940) is a Scottish former football player and manager who played as a midfielder.[4]

Playing career

[edit]

He joined Motherwell from the Edinburgh Norton junior club, and went on to make almost 100 league appearances for the Steelmen. He was made player of the year by the supporter's association for 1962.[5][6]

Roberts moved to play in the Football League with Leicester City for the 1963–64 season. He went on to play 230 league matches for the club, and also appeared in the 1969 FA Cup Final and the second leg of the 1965 Football League Cup final. On one occasion, he played as a goalkeeper at Old Trafford for 10 or 15 minutes when Peter Shilton got injured.[7] He subsequently transferred to Mansfield Town.

Managerial career

[edit]

Roberts moved into coaching with a brief stint as player-coach with Coventry City, and then in June 1975 he was appointed as manager of Colchester United. He remained at the club for seven years, and led them to promotion to the Football League Third Division in the 1976–77 season.

Roberts also managed Wrexham from 1982 to 1985 and Grimsby Town from 1987 to 1988, relinquishing the role to Alan Buckley. Whilst managing Wrexham, his starting goalkeeper got injured for a 1983–84 Welsh Cup 3rd round tie against Worcester City on 29 November 1983, so he had to decide whether to play his reserve goalkeeper, who was a 16-year-old, or to put his own boots at the age of 43, and after choosing the latter, he helped his side to a 1–1 draw.[7] In doing so at the age of 43 years and 88 days, Roberts became the oldest player in Wrexham's history, breaking a 61-year-old record from 1922 set by Lot Jones at 39.[8] He still holds this record by a large margin, since the next closest is Ben Foster, aged 40.[8]

To qualify for that tournament and then to play against two of the top teams at that time was probably the highlight of my managerial career.

Bobby Roberts[7]

With their starting goalkeeper fit again, Wrexham won the replay and went on to reach the Welsh Cup final, which they lost to Shrewsbury Town, but since they were an English club, Wrexham qualified for the 1984–85 European Cup Winners' Cup, and in doing so, Roberts became only the third coach in the club's history to lead Wrexham to a European competition, after John Neal and Arfon Griffiths.[7] In the first round, Roberts guided his side to a famous victory over Paulo Futre's FC Porto, who had been the finalists of the previous season.[7] They were then knocked-out in the second round by Sven-Göran Eriksson's Roma, the then runner-ups of the European Cup.[7]

Since then, Roberts has moved into scouting, working for Derby County,[9] Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Oxford City.[10]

Managerial statistics

[edit]
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Won %!
Colchester United England 20 June 1975 5 May 1982 375 143 108 124 38.1
Wrexham Wales 9 June 1982 31 March 1985 124 30 36 58 24.1
Grimsby Town England 1 July 1987 9 June 1988 54 14 13 27 25.9[11]

Honours

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Leicester City[12][13]

References

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  1. ^ "Bobby Roberts". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  2. ^ "Bobby Roberts". motherwellnet.com. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  3. ^ "Bobby Roberts - Scotland Football League Record from 04 Sep 1963 to 04 Sep 1963 clubs - Motherwell".
  4. ^ "Bobby Roberts". Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Transfer Database. Neil Brown. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  5. ^ http://www.motherwell-mad.co.uk/news/loadfeat.asp?cid=ED22&id=450142 [dead link]
  6. ^ "Bobby Roberts". MotherWELLnet. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Former Player Remembers: Bobby Roberts". 27 February 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Wrexham v York City". Wrexham AFC. 26 March 2023. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  9. ^ "Barry and the town". redpassion.co.uk. n.d. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Roberts handed Oxford scout role". BBC. 25 June 2006. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  11. ^ The Official Football League Yearbook
  12. ^ "FA Cup Finalists". Coludaybyday.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  13. ^ "League Cup Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
  14. ^ Vernon, Leslie; Rollin, Jack (1977). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1977–78. London: Brickfield Publications Ltd. p. 491. ISBN 0354 09018 6.
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