Gary Paul Michael Roberts (born 5 April 1960) is a Welsh retired professional

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 le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and winger. As a player, he is best remembered for his six years in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, for whom he made over 220 appearances and is a member of the club's

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

. After retiring as a player, Roberts turned to management and spent 13 years as manager of Cambridge City.

Club career

Brentford

Roberts was born in

Rhyl Rhyl (; cy, Y Rhyl, ) is a seaside town and community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Flintshire (historic), Flintshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at ...

, Wales. He began his career at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

First Division club

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 ...

and secured a £6,000 move to the

with Third Division club

in October 1980. He made 19 appearances and scored three goals in the 1980–81 season. Following the departure of

David Crown David Ian Crown (born 16 February 1958) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a forward in the Football League, most notably for Cambridge United and Southend United. He also played for Reading, Gillingham, Brentford, Po ...

, Roberts was a regular during the following season, playing as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, despite being right-footed. He also served as the club's PFA representative. Roberts came to the fore during the 1982–83 season, scoring 17 goals and amassing a career-high 58 appearances. He followed up with another 15 goals in 1983–84 and won the ''Midweek Sports Special'' Goal of the Month award for his finish in a 4–1

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

second round first leg defeat to First Division club

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. During the 1984–85

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, Roberts suffered a fractured ankle under a heavy challenge from

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

defender

Graham Roberts Graham Paul Roberts (born 3 July 1959) is an English retired footballer and manager who played as a defender for numerous clubs including Tottenham Hotspur (where he won the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup), Rangers (where he won the Scottish League ...

during a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. Roberts played the entire season with the aid of

cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug; it is not synthesized in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzy ...

injections and

painkillers An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of Pharmaceutical drug, drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or p ...

and scored 18 goals in 15 appearances. He scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against Gillingham and scoring four in the 6–0 rout of Newport County in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

Southern Area final, which included a three-minute hat-trick either side of half time. Needing to raise transfer funds, Roberts was transfer-listed by manager

Frank McLintock Francis McLintock MBE (born 28 December 1939) is a former Scotland international footballer, football manager and businessman. He also worked as a sports agent and football pundit in his later life. He began his career in Scottish Junior footba ...

and moves to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

and

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

fell through. Following rehabilitation on the ankle, Roberts again had to resort to painkillers and managed just three appearances during the 1985–86 season. He retired from professional football at the end of the campaign and made 224 appearances and scored 63 goals during his six years with the Bees. Roberts received a

testimonial In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, where ...

in May 1989, which raised £7,000 and was he inducted into the Brentford

in February 2020.

Non-League football

In 1986, Roberts dropped into

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

to sign for

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

club

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

in 1986, but he was only a bit-part player during the 1986–87 season, which saw the Bees narrowly miss out on promotion to the Football League after as finishing runners-up to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

. Spells with other Conference clubs

Maidstone United Maidstone United Football Club is a professional football club based in Maidstone, Kent, England. The team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league system. The current club filled the void left by the ol ...

and

Welling United Welling United Football Club is a professional football club, based in Welling in the London Borough of Bexley, England. The club's first team play in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football. History Welling United Foot ...

followed before Roberts dropped down to the Isthmian League Premier Division to sign for

Hitchin Town Hitchin Town Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. They are currently members of the . Founded in 1865 and known as 'The Canaries', Hitchin Town have been based at Top Field since their fou ...

late in the 1987–88 season. He signed for St Albans City in 1988 and three goals in five games before departing the club. Concurrently with his non-League career, as a serving officer, Roberts turned down an offer from

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and instead played for the Hertfordshire police team. He represented both the British and English police teams, captaining the former. Alternating spells with

Stevenage Borough Stevenage Football Club (known as Stevenage Borough Football Club until 2010) is a professional association football club based in the town of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier o ...

and Baldock Town followed from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Spells with Southern League clubs Cambridge City and

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

followed, plus a second spell with Hitchin Town, before Roberts retired from football in 1996, following a short stint with

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

International career

Roberts won one cap for the Wales U21 team.

Management career

Baldock Town

Roberts took over as joint-

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 o ...

of former club Baldock Town in 1999. Working alongside Steve Cook, the pair managed the Southern League First Division East club , winning The Herts Senior Cup just prior to it folding in 2001.

St Albans City

Roberts again returned to one of his former clubs, St Albans City, to take over as joint-manager alongside manager Steve Cook in 2001. A mid-table finish followed in the 2001–02 season, but the pair were sacked in December 2002, with the club top of the Isthmian League Premier Division table.

Cambridge City

Roberts took over as manager of Cambridge City in January 2003. In what remained of the 2002–03 season, he steered the club away from relegation from the Southern League Premier Division. An eighth-place finish followed in 2003–04, before a restructuring of the non-League pyramid in 2004 saw the Lilywhites playing in the newly formed

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

for the 2004–05 season. Roberts led the club to a second-place finish, but the season ended in a defeat to Eastbourne Borough in the playoff semi-finals. The season also included a club record-breaking run to the second round of the FA Cup. Roberts kept City in the Conference South for three further seasons before getting demoted back to the Southern League Premier Division in 2008, due to irregularities with the club's Milton Road ground. Over the following six seasons, Roberts guided City to five top-six finishes and a memorable run to the first round proper of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, taking

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

to a replay before being knocked out. He stepped down as manager during the 2016–17 pre-season.

Personal life

Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Roberts worked as a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...

. During his time with Brentford, he settled in

Baldock Baldock ( ) is a historic market town and unparished area in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire, England, where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north n ...

. After dropping out of professional football in 1986, Roberts worked for an insurance company in London and joined the police in June 1988. He served with the

Hertfordshire Constabulary Hertfordshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Hertfordshire in England. Its headquarters is in Welwyn Garden City. The current chief constable is Charlie Hall. As of March 2019, the force consi ...

until he took early retirement in 2014. As of October 2022, Roberts was living in

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

Career statistics

Player

Manager

Honours

* Brentford Hall of Fame

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Gary 1960 births Living people Welsh men's footballers Men's association football forwards Brentford F.C. players English Football League players Barnet F.C. players Maidstone United F.C. (1897) players Welling United F.C. players Hitchin Town F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Cambridge City F.C. players Wembley F.C. players Cambridge City F.C. managers Braintree Town F.C. players Isthmian League players Southern Football League players Sportspeople from Rhyl Footballers from Denbighshire St Albans City F.C. players Baldock Town F.C. players Bishop's Stortford F.C. players Baldock Town F.C. managers St Albans City F.C. managers Southern Football League managers Isthmian League managers National League (English football) managers Welsh football managers British bricklayers