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Roy McDonough

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Roy McDonough
Personal information
Date of birth (1958-10-16) 16 October 1958 (age 66)
Place of birth Solihull, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Aston Villa
1975–1976 Birmingham City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1976–1978 Birmingham City 2 (1)
1978–1980 Walsall 82 (15)
1980–1981 Chelsea 0 (0)
1981–1983 Colchester United 93 (24)
1983–1984 Southend United 22 (4)
1984 Exeter City 20 (1)
1984–1985 Cambridge United 32 (5)
1985–1990 Southend United 186 (30)
1990–1994 Colchester United 127 (50)
1996 Chelmsford City 3 (0)
Total 567 (130)
Managerial career
1991–1994 Colchester United
1996 Chelmsford City
1998 Heybridge Swifts
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Roy McDonough (born 16 October 1958) is an English former professional football player and manager in the English Football League.

Playing career

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Roy McDonough was born in Solihull, he was one of four brothers and a twin to Gaz McDonough.[2] He came from a sporting family, and had an uncle Fred Harris, who captained Birmingham City.[3] His father, James, played for Bath City and owned a dress shop.[3] His mother, Iris, ran a boutique.[4] McDonough signed schoolboy forms with Aston Villa, along with his twin, after becoming top-scorer for the Birmingham schools and Warwickshire county school teams.[5] However, in March 1975, at the age of 16, he was handed a six-month suspension from competitive football for throttling a referee in the final of the Birmingham Schools Cup.[6] He was not offered professional terms by manager Ron Saunders.[7]

He used his family connections to win a trial at First Division club Birmingham City, and was signed to an 18-month apprenticeship after he scored four goals in two trial games.[8] He went on to sign professional forms with the club, and made his debut in the Football League in a 1–0 defeat to Sunderland at Roker Park on 7 May 1977.[9]

He went on to Colchester to make some 88 appearances, scoring 24 goals in his first spell at Layer Road before moving to local rivals Southend United in 1983. In 22 appearances for the "Shrimpers" between 1984 and 1985 he scored 4 times.

Between 1985 and 1986 McDonough moved first to Exeter City (21 appearances, 1 goal) and then Cambridge United (32 appearances, 5 goals) before returning to Roots Hall and Southend. In his second spell at Southend, he became to some fans a cult hero.[10] In around 186 appearances he scored 30 times, however certain sections of the crowd were not always enamoured with his playing style.

In September 1990 he returned to Colchester United, who had been relegated to the Football Conference, as a player. In his second season, he top scored with 29 goals in a Conference and FA Trophy Double-winning campaign as player-manager, before making another 63 Football League appearances and scoring 16 times. He was sacked as manager in 1994 and joined Dagenham & Redbridge, moving on to Chelmsford City, where he made three league appearances,[11] amongst others.

Managerial career

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Roy took the managerial position at Colchester United for the 1991–92 season, following Ian Atkins' departure in the Summer of 1991 and achieved legendary status at the North Essex club by guiding them to a Football Conference and FA Trophy 'double', promoting them back into the full Football League.

During his period in charge, McDonough stoked the bitter rivalry with Martin O'Neill's Wycombe Wanderers that had developed during both clubs' time in non-league's 'top flight', culminating in the dramatic promotion season of 1991–92 when Colchester advanced into Division Four on the last day via a superior goal difference. While Wycombe and Colchester played out a mini-league of their own (both clubs finished some 21 points ahead of their nearest rivals) Big Roy had on occasions taunted the Wycombe players and staff and antagonised them by un-sportsmanlike tactics.[12]

Commenting on an incident where Colchester United hooligans attacked home supporters during a Conference championship deciding match in 1992 at Adams Park, he was quoted as saying, "It takes two to fight, one to punch, the other to stand there and be punched."

Arguably it was his confrontational style, carried over from his playing days, that ultimately saw him leave Colchester and move through the non-league ranks with Dagenham & Redbridge, Chelmsford City, Canvey Island, Heybridge Swifts, Bishop's Stortford, Braintree Town and Harwich and Parkeston amongst others.

Style of play

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A tall, imposing forward (though he played as an orthodox centre-half on a number of occasions) he had a reputation as one of football's "hard men" and rarely shied away from the physical aspects of the game. As a result, he is the record holder for the most dismissals in a career, 22, and for red cards in the Football League, 13, an unenviable mark that he holds jointly with Steve Walsh.[13][14]

Later life

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In August 2012 he published his autobiography, Red Card Roy, which was ghost-written by Bernie Friend.[15]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[16]
Club Season League FA Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Birmingham City 1976–77 First Division 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 1
Walsall 1978–79 Third Division 34 7 1 0 0 0 35 7
1979–80 Fourth Division 42 7 4 0 2 0 48 7
1980–81 Third Division 6 1 0 0 2 1 8 2
Total 82 15 5 0 4 1 91 16
Chelsea 1980–81 Second Division 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Colchester United 1980–81 Third Division 12 2 0 0 0 0 12 2
1981–82 Fourth Division 40 14 5 0 5 2 50 16
1982–83 Fourth Division 41 8 1 0 7 0 49 8
Total 93 24 6 0 12 2 111 26
Southend United 1983–84 Third Division 22 4 2 0 2 0 26 4
Exeter City 1983–84 Third Division 16 0 0 0 3 0 19 0
1984–85 Fourth Division 4 1 0 0 2 0 6 1
Total 20 1 0 0 5 0 25 1
Cambridge United 1984–85 Third Division 32 5 3 1 1 0 36 6
Southend United 1985–86 Fourth Division 38 7 1 0 4 0 43 7
1986–87 Fourth Division 33 4 3 3 2 0 38 7
1987–88 Third Division 42 9 3 0 8 2 53 11
1988–89 Third Division 40 5 0 0 6 0 46 5
1989–90 Fourth Division 33 5 1 0 5 0 39 5
Total 186 30 8 3 25 2 219 35
Colchester United 1990–91[17] Conference 24 8 0 0 5 1 29 9
1991–92[18] Conference 40 26 0 0 11 3 51 29
1992–93 Third Division 25 9 3 0 3 0 31 9
1993–94 Third Division 38 7 1 0 6 2 45 9
Total 127 50 4 0 25 6 156 56
Career total 564 130 23 3 74 11 661 144

Honours

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Walsall[19]
Southend United[19]
Colchester United[20][21]

References

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General

  • McDonough, Roy; Friend, Bernie (2012), Red Card Roy: Sex, Booze, and early Baths. The Life of Britain's Wildest-Ever Footballer, Vision Sports, ISBN 978-1-907637-56-8

Specific

  1. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 12
  2. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 7
  3. ^ a b McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 11
  4. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 13
  5. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 3
  6. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 4
  7. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 9
  8. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 14
  9. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 23
  10. ^ "Southend's cult heroes". BBC Sport. 6 November 2004. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Archive player appearances: 1996/97 season". Chelmsford City F.C. Archived from the original on 21 June 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  12. ^ "O'Neill will lose out again, says old sparring partner". The Scotsman. 8 May 2003. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  13. ^ Smyth, Rob; Dart, James (20 April 2005). "Top-flight champions as both player and manager". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  14. ^ Cunningham, Matt; Glendenning, Barry; Ingle, Sean (26 June 2003). "Away penalties at Old Trafford". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  15. ^ McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 1
  16. ^ Roy McDonough at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  17. ^ "1990–91 stats". www.coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  18. ^ "1991–92 stats". www.coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  19. ^ a b "Tier Four (League Two) Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
  20. ^ "Conference Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
  21. ^ "FA Trophy Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
  22. ^ Marston, Carl (13 May 2012). "Roy McDonough inducted into U's Hall of Fame". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
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