Alan Roderick Rough (; born 25 November 1951) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

. He won 53

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

and played in two

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...

s. He also had a long club career, principally with

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

and Hibernian. Since retiring as a player, Rough had a spell as manager of junior club

Glenafton Athletic Glenafton Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club, based in New Cumnock, Ayrshire. Members of the Scottish Junior Football Association, they play in the West of Scotland Football League. The club has won the Scottish Junior Cup twice ...

and has worked in the media, particularly on radio phone-in shows.

Early life

Rough was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

and was educated at Knightswood Secondary School.

Playing career

Club

After making his debut at the end of season 1969–70, Rough went on to play a total of 631 games for

in all competitions (409 in the league), which are all-time club record totals. He was a member of the ''Jags'' team that defeated Celtic 4–1 in the 1971 Scottish League Cup Final. Rough told

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pa ...

in 2010: "I loved playing for Thistle, loved winning the League Cup with them, and maybe I stayed there too long but that was me. I never thought about 'career' and I never bothered about money. All of my business ventures – the pub in

Maryhill Maryhill ( gd, Cnoc Màiri) is an area of the City of Glasgow in Scotland. Maryhill is a former burgh. Maryhill stretches over along Maryhill Road. The far north west of the area is served by Maryhill railway station. History Hew Hill ...

, the sports shop in

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of . History The name Musselburgh is O ...

– failed. But I absolutely loved standing in the

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

tunnel next to these English stars like

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...

and Emlyn Hughes when I was on 40 quid a week at Thistle, when the previous week at Firhill the crowd had been 2100, and we were about to walk on to the park and enjoy a famous win." Shortly after his testimonial game in 1982 ( Scotland XI vs Celtic), Rough transferred to Hibernian for a £60,000 fee. He was eventually replaced by

Andy Goram Andrew Lewis Goram (13 April 1964 – 2 July 2022) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, he started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for Ra ...

, who also took his place in the Scotland squad. After leaving Hibs in 1988, Rough played in the United States with

Orlando Lions The Orlando Lions were an American soccer team from Orlando, Florida which existed from 1985 to 1996. Over the years, the Lions competed at both the amateur and professional levels including some seasons as an independent team. The Lions is a ni ...

. He also had spells with Celtic (covering for the injured Pat Bonner), Hamilton Academical and Ayr United before leaving senior football.

International

He was chosen for the Scotland under-18s for the UEFA under-18 Euros held on home soil in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and 1 ...

. Rough played in two

tournaments for Scotland, in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 – ...

and

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

. He played 53 times for his country, keeping a clean sheet in 16 of those games. At the time of his retirement, Rough was Scotland's most capped goalkeeper, but this record has since been broken by Jim Leighton. Rough's penultimate cap was won in the tragic circumstances of the 1–1 draw with

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

at Ninian Park,

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

in 1985. FIFA, 10 September 2008 Rough came on as a half-time substitute because Leighton had lost his

contact lenses Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

. The result, secured by a late Davie Cooper penalty kick, meant that Scotland qualified for a play-off against Australia, but

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Jock Stein John "Jock" Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He was the first manager of a British side to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967. Stein also guided Celtic to nine successive Scottis ...

collapsed and died at the end of the match. Rough was selected for the finals squad by

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all ti ...

, but only played in one further international.

After playing

Coaching

Rough had a successful five-year spell as the manager (initially

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

) of Junior club

after being appointed in 1990. He led the team to three

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association. The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA in 1886 and, as of the 2022–23 edition, 108 teams compete ...

finals in a row between 1991–92 to 1993–94, also reaching the semi-finals in 1990–91 and 1994–95. Glenafton lost 4–0 to Auchinleck Talbot in the 1992 final and 1–0 to Largs Thistle in the 1994 final, but did beat Tayport 1–0 in the 1993 final at Firhill Stadium (Rough's home ground for much of his playing career), winning the trophy for the first time. The team also added the Ayrshire First Division title and the Ayrshire Cup to make it a treble in 1992–93, the most successful season in the club's history.

Media work

Rough co-presented a football phone-in show on

Real Radio Scotland Heart Scotland is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. The station relaunched as Heart on 6 May 2014, serving Central and Southern Scotland from studios in Glasgow city centre. Heart Scotl ...

until July 2012, when the station replaced the phone-in with music. From August 2006 to June 2009, the Irish sports broadcaster

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

simulcasted the show live twice a week on Setanta Sports 1. He later co-presented a football show along with Peter Martin shown on STV2 and

STV STV may refer to: Television * Satellite television ** Direct-broadcast satellite television (DBSTV) Channels and stations * STV (TV channel), the brand name of ITV broadcasters in central and northern Scotland ** Scottish Television, now le ...

Director

Rough was appointed to the Partick Thistle board of directors in June 2018, and he resigned from this position in July 2019.

Personal life

Rough married Margaret Barry, a ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...

'' reporter, in 2009 after a seventeen-year engagement. Barry has two children from a previous relationship. Rough was previously married to Michelle, a former model and Tennent's girl. Michelle and Alan had one son, also named Alan. Rough was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

for services to association football and to charity in Scotland.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Player

Partick Thistle *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in exist ...

: 1971–72 *

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as ...

: 1970–71, 1975–76 (second tier) *

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rul ...

: 1980–81 Scotland national team *

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

: 1975–76, 1976–77 * Rous Cup:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Manager

Glenafton Athletic *

: 1992–93 * Ayrshire First Division: 1992–93 * Ayrshire Junior Cup: 1992–93 *Ayrshire District Cup: 1993–94

Individual

SFWA Footballer of the Year The Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year (often called the SFWA Footballer of the Year, or simply the Scottish Footballer of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the se ...

: 1980–81 *

Scottish FA International Roll of Honour The International Roll of Honour is a list established by the Scottish Football Association recognising players who have gained 50 or more international caps for Scotland. The roll of honour was launched in February 1988, when 11 players had alrea ...

: 1982 * Partick Thistle Hall of Fame: Inducted, 2010 * Hibernian Hall of Fame: Inducted, 2012 *

Scottish Football Hall of Fame The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Nominations are made each year by fans and a committee selects the inductees. The first inductions to the Hall of Fame were in November 2004 in a ceremony at Hampden Pa ...

: Inducted, 2013 *

Hall of Fame: Inducted, 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rough, Alan 1951 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow People educated at Knightswood Secondary School American Soccer League (1988–89) players Ayr United F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Association football goalkeepers Glenafton Athletic F.C. managers Scottish Junior Football Association managers Hamilton Academical F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Orlando Lions players Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish footballers Scottish Football League players Scotland international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players Scottish Football League representative players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Scottish Junior Football Association players Glenafton Athletic F.C. players Scottish football managers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scotland under-23 international footballers Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Members of the Order of the British Empire

Early life

Playing career

Club

International

After playing

Coaching

Media work

Director

Personal life

Career statistics

International

Honours

Player

Manager

Individual

See also

References

Further reading

External links