John Charles Rogers (born 16 September 1950) is an English 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 le ...

who played as a

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. He moved from

Burscough Burscough () is a town and civil parish in West Lancashire in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It is located to the north of Ormskirk and northwest of Skelmersdale. The parish also includes the hamlet of Tarlscough and the Martin M ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, then competing in the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

, in 1972. In four years with the club he scored 77 goals in 174 league appearances and helped them to win the league title; his performances earned him a move to

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in October 1976, where he turned semi-professional. He refused to become a full-time professional, and instead was sold on to

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

in July 1977. He maintained an average goal ratio of a goal every two games in his time at Moss Lane, helping the club to two

Alliance Premier League The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in Football in England, England consisting of three divisions, the National League (division), National League, National League Nor ...

titles and triumph in the

Cheshire Senior Cup The Cheshire County Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Cheshire Senior Cup, is a football knockout tournament founded in the 1879–80 season and involves teams from Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England. It ...

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

and

Conference League Cup The Conference League Cup (formerly known as the Setanta Shield for sponsorship reasons, and before that the Bob Lord Trophy) was a football competition open to clubs playing in the Football Conference. History The competition was formed for ...

competitions. He had a brief spell back 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 Wigan Athletic in 1982–83, before he saw out his career at Altrincham,

Barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

, and

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

. He also won five caps as an England semi-pro international.

Career

Rogers started his career at

before moving to

club

in the 1971–72 season, where he played in the same side as John King. He was the club's top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons, scoring 24 goals in the 1974–75 season, and another 25 goals in the following season. Wigan were crowned the league's champions in 1974–75, improving on their second-place finish in 1973–74, though they were not

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. In four and a half years at the club, he made 174 league appearances, scoring 77 goals. He spent a brief spell in America in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

, playing for the

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

; he scored twice in fourteen appearances. He joined

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

as a part-time professional in October 1976 and scored a goal on his debut; a 2–1 home win over

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

on 8 October 1976. Earlier in the day, he went about his regular job rewiring

council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...

s in Liverpool. He became a regular in the first team, playing 26 league games and scoring six goals in the 1976–77 campaign. He was sold on to Northern Premier League side

for £2,000 in July 1977, as the "Vale" management were unhappy at his refusal to become a full-time footballer. He joined the "Robins" for the start of the 1977–78 season and made his debut in the 0–0 home draw with former club Wigan Athletic. He scored his first goal for the club in the next game, a 2–2 away draw at

Bangor City Bangor City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Bangor) are an inactive Welsh football club from the City of Bangor, Gwynedd. They started the 2021–22 season in the Cymru North the second level of the Welsh football league system, but ...

. In his first season, he reached

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 scored one of the goals in Altrincham's 3–1 defeat of

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leath ...

in the Trophy final. The following season was his most prolific as he notched 35 goals. In the 1979–80 campaign he scored the winning goal at Gravesend & Northfleet that secured the inaugural

title; he also scored both of Altrincham's goals in the

final defeat against

Northwich Victoria {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

. The following season he picked up his second championship medal, and helped the club to League cup success over

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

. The next season his goals against

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

in the

semi-final secured Altrincham's place in the FA Trophy final at Wembley against

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

; he also helped the club to lift the

. The following season ( 1982–83), the last of his Altrincham career, he started on trial back at Wigan Athletic, who were now in the

, and scored twice in six games. On his return to

Moss Lane Moss Lane (currently known as the J. Davidson Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a multi-purpose stadium in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It is currently used primarily for football matches and is the home ground of Altrincham. The ...

he was unable to find his scoring touch and failed to dislodge Graham Bennett. Overall, he totalled 133 goals in 276 games for Altrincham. He then moved to

and later had a short spell at Runcorn. His performances there earned him five semi-pro international caps in 1981 and 1982.

Style of play

He was renowned for his

heading Heading can refer to: * Heading (metalworking), a process which incorporates the extruding and upsetting processes * Headline, text at the top of a newspaper article * Heading (navigation), the direction a person or vehicle is facing, usually si ...

ability.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

Wigan Athletic *

: 1974–75 Altrincham *

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 Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

second-place promotion: 1978–79 *

: 1979–80 & 1980–81 *

: 1981; runner-up: 1980 *

runner-up:

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 bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

: 1982

References

General * * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, John Footballers from Liverpool English men's footballers England men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football forwards Wigan Athletic F.C. players Portland Timbers (1975–1982) players Port Vale F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Runcorn F.C. Halton players English Football League players Northern Premier League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players National League (English football) players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers English football managers Oswestry Town F.C. managers Witton Albion F.C. managers South Liverpool F.C. managers 1950 births Living people