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Harold Roberts
Personal information
Full name Harold Roberts [1]
Date of birth (1920-01-12)12 January 1920
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Date of death 11 February 2007(2007-02-11) (aged 87) [2]
Place of death Chesterfield, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) [3]
Position(s) Outside left
Youth career
Everton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps ( Gls)
193?–1939 Harrowby
1939–1948 Chesterfield 92 (9)
1948–1951 Birmingham City 34 (2)
1951–1953 Shrewsbury Town 70 (16)
1953–195? Scunthorpe United 17 (1)
1955–1956 Matlock Town
1956–1957 Gresley Rovers
1957–19?? Burton Albion
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Harold Roberts (12 January 1920 – 11 February 2007), also known as Harry Roberts, was an English professional footballer who made 213 appearances in the Football League playing for Chesterfield, Birmingham City, Shrewsbury Town and Scunthorpe United. [4] He played as an outside left.

Career

Roberts was born in Liverpool. [1] As a 16-year-old he spent a season with Everton, and then played for Harrowby. He joined Chesterfield in September 1939, just before the Football League was suspended for the duration of the Second World War. [2] During the war, Roberts served with No. 2 Commando. He was wounded in the legs and captured during Operation Chariot, the raid on the French port of Saint-Nazaire in 1942, and owed the possibility of a football career to the repair work carried out by a German surgeon. [2] [5] Roberts spent 3+1⁄2 years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bremen. On his return, he lodged with Chesterfield coach and former England international Joe Spence, whose individual work with Roberts played a major role in his recovery. [2]

He scored on his first-team debut, in the 1945–46 FA Cup at home to York City, and made his Football League debut on 31 August 1946, in the Second Division in a 1–1 draw at home to Bradford Park Avenue. [6] Described as "an outside-left of great distinction, ... skilful, intelligent and, above all, fast, with an excellent pin-point cross", [2] Roberts made 92 league appearances for the club in 2+1⁄2 years. In November 1948 he moved on to Birmingham City, recently promoted to the First Division, for a fee of £10,600, at the time a record fee received by the Chesterfield club. [2] During his time at Birmingham he suffered a number of injuries which restricted his appearances to 38 in a 2+1⁄2-year stay. At the end of the 1950–51 season, Roberts joined Shrewsbury Town of the Third Division South, [1] where he played regularly for two seasons [4] before finishing his league career with infrequent outings for Scunthorpe United over a further two seasons. [7]

Roberts then played non-league football for Matlock Town, Gresley Rovers, for whom he scored 6 goals from 38 games, [8] and Burton Albion, and helped with the coaching of Matlock Town's reserve team as they won the Central Alliance Division Two title and League Cup in the 1959–60 season. [3] [9] During the 1960s Roberts spent eight years as a youth worker at Staveley Chantry youth club, where he established a football team. He then returned to Chesterfield F.C., initially as an assistant youth coach, and remained at the club until 1983, when he was one of several staff dismissed by a new board of directors. He later acted as a scout for Sheffield United and Rotherham United. [2] [10]

Roberts was married to Dorothy and had two sons, [10] one of whom, Peter, also played league football for Chesterfield. [2] [11] Harold Roberts died in hospital in Chesterfield in 2007 at the age of 87. [10]

References

  1. ^ a b c Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 120. ISBN  978-1-85983-010-9.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Harold Roberts: 1920–2007". Chesterfield F.C. 12 February 2007. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Pen pictures and player profiles". Down Causeway Lane. Matlock Town F.C. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009.
  4. ^ a b "Harold Roberts". UK A–Z Transfers. Neil Brown. Retrieved 2 June 2009.
  5. ^ "St Nazaire Raid 28th March 1942". Commando Veterans Association. 26 March 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  6. ^ "Chesterfield's debutants" (XLSX). cfchistory.com. Stuart Basson. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  7. ^ "The Iron Alphabet". Scunthorpe United F.C. 22 June 2007. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012.
  8. ^ "Harold Roberts". Gresley Rovers Player Database. Gresley F.C. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  9. ^ "Crook Town and that 1959/60 season". Down Causeway Lane. Matlock Town F.C. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008.
  10. ^ a b c "Mr H. Roberts". Derbyshire Times. 22 February 2007. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011.
  11. ^ "Chesterfield: 1946/47–2007/08". UK A–Z Transfers. Neil Brown. Retrieved 22 June 2009.

External links

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