Roger William Holmes (born 9 September 1942) is an English former 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 scored 36 goals from 278 games 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 ...

playing as an inside forward or wing half for Lincoln City, his only professional club.

Career

Holmes was born in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, and attended

Brigg Grammar School Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tran ...

. While still at school he played for Limestone Rangers in the Gainsborough League, and made his debut at 15 for Lincoln City's reserve team. He left school with 13 O-levels, and began training as an industrial chemist at a

steel works. He signed for Lincoln City as a part-time professional, and made his debut in

on 18 April 1960, aged only 17, in a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

away game against Brighton & Hove Albion. He was gradually introduced to regular first-team football, and remained with the club as they dropped to the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. He was Lincoln's top scorer with 14 goals in 1967–68, Access 1967–68 season statistics via Season Stats dropdown menu at foot of right sidebar. but suffered an injury towards the end of that season which kept him out until the September. Only a few games after his return, he broke both bones of his leg, an injury which kept him out of football for 18 months and from which he never recovered his previous standard of play. After retiring from professional football, having made 305 appearances for his only club, he played and coached in non-League and junior football, including working under Graham Taylor with Lincoln's youth team. After football, he spent 25 years with a major finance company, working his way up to a regional management position. He lived in Lincolnshire after retirement.

References

1942 births Living people Footballers from Scunthorpe English men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Men's association football wing halves Lincoln City F.C. players Lincoln United F.C. players English Football League players {{England-footy-midfielder-1940s-stub