Rodger Wylde, born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

on 8 March 1954, is a former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

and

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

. Wylde played as a striker, he was good in the air but had fine skill on the ground for a tall man. In his final few years in football he took a degree in

physiotherapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

Playing career

Rodger Wylde's career lasted from 1972 to 1989 during which time he played 370 English league games, scoring 139 goals.

Sheffield Wednesday

Roger Wylde joined Sheffield Wednesday as an apprentice straight from school in July 1971 and made his debut for the club on 18 November 1972 against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, he scored his first goal two weeks later on 2 December against

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

. Wylde's opportunities at Hillsborough were limited until the appointment of

Len Ashurst Leonard Ashurst (10 March 1939 – 25 September 2021) was an English football player, manager and administrator. He spent most of his playing career with Sunderland, making 458 appearances, the second most in the club's history. He retired a ...

as manager in October 1975. In the 1976–77 season he was top scorer for the club with 25 goals in all competitions and formed a fine attacking partnership with

Tommy Tynan Thomas Edward Tynan (born 17 November 1955) is an English retired professional footballer. A hard working striker with flowing blonde hair, Tynan was signed as an apprentice for Liverpool by manager Bill Shankly after winning a talent contest ...

, between them they netted 40 goals that season. Wylde continued to score goals regularly over the following two seasons and became a crowd favourite with Wednesday supporters who gave him the nickname "Oscar". Wylde's trademark celebration after scoring a goal was to go on his knees with arms aloft in front of the fans. The 1979–80 season saw Wylde not playing as regularly for the team as

Terry Curran Edward Terence (Terry) Curran is an English former professional footballer whose career lasted from 1975 to 1988. Curran was an attacking midfielder, who could also play as a winger, and as an out and out striker. During his 13-year career ...

, Ian Mellor and Andy McCulloch became the main forwards during Wednesday's promotion that season from

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the fo ...

. He was sold by manager

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

midway through that season, with Wylde playing his final game on 16 February 1980 and moving to Oldham Athletic as a replacement for

Vic Halom Victor Lewis "Vic" Halom (born 3 October 1948 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England) is a former footballer Biography Playing career Halom featured as a player most prominently for Sunderland and Oldham Athletic. He played as centre forw ...

Oldham Athletic, Sporting CP, Sunderland

Wylde continued his good goalscoring form at Oldham finishing top scorer in each of his three full seasons there, in total scoring 51 league goals in 113 appearances. At the end of his contract with Oldham, Wylde moved abroad to play for top

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

side Sporting CP for the 1983–84 season. He was very much a fringe player with Sporting and his chances in the first team were limited. Wylde was brought back to the English game during the 1984–85 season by his old manager at Wednesday, Len Ashurst, who was now in charge at Sunderland and this gave Wylde his only opportunity to play top-level football in England. He played 11 games that season for Sunderland scoring three goals including one against Liverpool at Anfield in 1–1 draw.

Barnsley, Stockport County

Rodger Wylde's last few seasons as a player were at Barnsley and Stockport County. He spent three seasons at Barnsley playing 52 league games scoring 19 goals. Part of the 1987–88 season saw him on loan at

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

before joining Stockport where he spent one season (1988–89) on the playing staff, appearing in 26 games and scoring 12 goals.

Physiotherapist

In order to stay in football when he retired from playing Wylde started a physiotherapy degree course towards the end of his playing career. He graduated from the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

. After qualifying he opened a treatment centre and gymnasium in Sheffield but when

Danny Bergara Daniel Alberto Bergara de Medina (24 July 1942 – 25 July 2007) was a Uruguayan footballer and manager. Playing career Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Bergara began his playing career at the age of 16, playing for Racing Club in the Uruguaya ...

became Stockport manager in March 1989 he offered Wylde the post of club physiotherapist. Wylde has now been physio at Stockport for 24 years, an unusually long time, serving under eleven different managers to date. In 2006, he was inducted into Stockport's Hall of Fame. After Stockport's promotion in 2008, Rodger got naked in the changing rooms at Wembley and said, "It's been a really.......good day" . Wylde left Stockport to become the 'Head of Sports Science and Medicine' at

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

on 8 July 2014, replacing Jamie Hewitt. In February 2022 Wylde became Physio at

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

Music

Rodger Wylde was always a big music fan especially of

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

. In 1998, he formed his own band Fracture along with Stockport player Tom Bennett, who was recovering from a severe break to his leg at the time. Both men decided to learn the guitar to brighten up the prolonged injury period, and a bassist and a drummer were added. After a period of nonperforming, Fracture were re-formed in April 2006 with Stockport's club doctor Steve Greenhough (keyboards and bass), David Prudhoe (lead guitar) and Keith Chadwick (drums) joining Rodger and Tom to complete the new line-up. They play regular concerts around the

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

area.

References

External links

Fracture Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wylde, Rodger 1954 births Living people Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Sporting CP footballers Sunderland A.F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Association football physiotherapists Footballers from Sheffield Alumni of the University of Salford Stockport County F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football forwards English footballers