Melchester Rovers

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Melchester Rovers
Full name Melchester Rovers Football Club
Nickname(s) The Rovers
Founded 1885
Ground Mel Park, Melchester
Capacity Unknown
Chairman Flag of England Roy Race
Manager Flag of England Roy Race
League FA Premier League (fictional)
1999-2000 FA Premier League, 1st (fictional)
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Away colours

Melchester Rovers are a fictional football team with whom Roy Race spent most of his illustrious career in the British comic strip Roy of the Rovers, which first appeared in Tiger at its inception in 1954.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early Years

According to the comic strip's continuity, Melchester Rovers were founded in 1885, winning at least three League Championships and a number of F.A. Cups during the pre-war years of their existence. In 1954, however, the first Roy of the Rovers strip appeared, telling the story of the club and its star striker Roy Race. Melchester finally became League Champions in 1958, and won the F.A. Cup the following season, by which time Race was captain.

[edit] 1960s

It was in the 1960s, however, that Rovers became a footballing force to be bargained with. The decade brought three league titles, two FA Cups, two European Cups, one European Cup Winners' Cup and one World Club Cup. It wasn't a decade without its problems, though, and in an example of the topsy-turvy nature of the history that would follow, Rovers only narrowly avoided relegation at the end of 1967... the same year they won the ECWC!

[edit] 1970s

In 1972, Rovers achieved their first - and currently only - League and Cup "Double", and later that year, long-serving team manager Ben Galloway was promoted upstairs to General Manager, with former Rovers winger Tony Storme taking over team affairs. His tenure began well, with a third European Cup win in 1973, and Rovers began the next season with an all-new, modern strip and a strong sense of optimism. Poor results and a spate of injuries, however, meant a demoralising first half of the season, with many of the team believing the new kit was "jinxed". Happily, this was overcome, and despite a disappointing league season, achieved their first domestic cup double, winning the League Cup in addition to another FA Cup. In 1975, though, a humiliating defeat in the 3rd Round of the Cup to non-league minnows Sleeford Town led to the disappearance of manager Tony Storme. Roy Race took over as player-manager, and kept the post when Storme came out of hiding some months later and made his retirement official. Race's Melchester won a trophy at their first attempt, the 1975 Cup Winners' Cup. The first title under Roy came two years later, in 1977, the season in which a supermarket chain offered a (then) staggering £30,000 to the first player in England to score 50 League and Cup goals. The competition went down to the last day of the season, and was won by Mervyn Wallace, despite many fans' belief that Race himself had got the last touch on what would have been his 50th goal. Controversy reigned in 1978, when it was rumoured that Race was due to accept a £1million offer to take over as team manager of Middle-Eastern state Basran. Rovers' form slumped, and Ben Galloway temporarily took back over as manager. However, once the rumours were quashed, Roy was reinstated and Rovers pulled themselves out of the relegation zone, the '78-'79 season ending in style with a UEFA Cup win.

[edit] 1980s

The 1980s were full of drama with many events of a "soap opera" style, the sort that would eventually inspire series like Sky One's Dream Team. Melchester were League Champions in 1979-80 but were relegated to Division Two just one year later. The 1981-82 season saw a potential tragedy when Roy was shot by a jealous actor who was due to play him in a TV series about the club. Rovers set a new league goal-scoring record - 14-0 against Keysborough - an event that saw Roy recover from his coma when the commentary was played in the hospital. Sir Alf Ramsey managed the club during this period and helped Rovers to set a new league record of 34 games undefeated and win the Second Division. Roy recovered to start the 1982-1983 season where Mel Park becomes Britain's first all-seater stadium. However, in April 1983 Roy sensationally quit Melchester after a row with Rovers chairman Sam Barlow and signed for Walford Rovers. Blackie Gray was appointed new player-manager, but his reign was short-lived, as Roy returned in December 1983 and led an injury-ravaged Rovers to an unlikely FA Cup win over Walford. They followed up this dramatic FA Cup win with an equally dramatic European Cup-Winners' Cup victory on penalties against Real Santana of Spain in 1985. The following season was an eventful one, as Roy shook up the team by signing retired players turned TV pundits Bob Wilson and Emlyn Hughes, as well as two members of pop group Spandau Ballet! Rovers won the Milk Cup, beating Tynecaster 3-0 and set a new league record of 12 consecutive games without conceding a goal, but in the close season, the club faced its biggest tragedy ever when a terrorist bomb in Basran killed eight team members - Noel Baxter, Vic Guthrie, Steve Naylor, Carl Hunt, Neville Jones, Kenny Logan, Jimmy Slade and Trevor Cassidy. Roy dedicated Rovers' 2-1 Littlewoods Cup Final win in 1987 to those players. 1987-88 saw the club become League Champions once again but they were fighting relegation in 1988-89 during a season that saw them play most of their home matches at Wembley Stadium following an earthquake at Mel Park. Rovers avoided relegation with a 3-1 win over Melboro' in the season's final match.

[edit] 1990s

Rovers started the decade well by winning the 1990 FA Cup Final, 2-1 against Weston Villa. They were League Champions in 1991-1992 while Roy set a new league goal-scoring record, notching up his 436th goal to win a charity bet with former record-holder and TV pundit "Chippy" Croker (a clear analogue for Jimmy Greaves). 1992-93 saw a season of turmoil when Roy resigned as manager live on Sky TV. He returned before the end of the season, but on the way to scout an up-and-coming youth player, crashed his helicopter and was left in a coma. He recovered in time for the 1993-1994 season, but learned that his left foot had been amputated. Recovering, he left England to become manager of Italian side AC Monza. With his departure, Rovers' fortunes became bleaker, occasional moments of brilliance from players such as Roy's son "Rocky" Race and the Nigerian Paul "Del" Ntende shining among the troubles, which included now-manager Blackie Gray resigning after receiving death threats, and the club only narrowly avoiding relegation in 1995, with Rocky scoring a last-minute goal to save them. However, soon after that match a Melchester Director was found guilty of attempting to bribe the opposition to throw the game. They won the FA Cup in 1995 but after the death of Rocky's mother Penny in a car crash in Italy, Rocky quit Rovers to join fierce local rivals Melborough. 1995-96 was a disaster for Rovers as more top players left after a bribery scandal shamed the club, and they were relegated at the end of the season into Division One. In 1996-97, Roy Race Sr. returned to manage the club, and arrived in time to save the Rovers from a second successive relegation. In 1997-1998, Rovers finished the season fourth in Division One but won in the play-offs to gain promotion back to the Premiership. Following Rocky's transfer back to the club, they won the 1998-99 FA Cup in extra time, and the turnaround was complete in 1999-2000, when they won the Premiership title on the last day of the season, their first title in eight years and their last to date. The following season, Race was finally able to buy out the club's owners, the Vitner brothers, and the club began to look forward to the new millennium, with a planned move to an exciting new stadium under the ownership of their greatest hero.

[edit] Colours and kits

The various kits worn by Melchester over the years
The various kits worn by Melchester over the years

Melchester Rovers' colours have always involved some combination of red and yellow, although the precise designs have varied, often dramatically, over the years. When the comic was first introduced, the club played in plain red shirts with yellow sleeves, and navy blue shorts. This strip persisted for many years, until a dramatic new look was introduced in 1973. This involved an all-red strip, with a yellow vertical stripe running down one side of the shirt, one on the other side of the shorts, and a yellow "T"-shape on the socks. In addition, the shirts uniquely featured the players' numbers on one sleeve. This kit was worn until 1981, when Rovers were relegated to the Second Division, and switched back to a more conventional, symmetrical design. This shirt featured yellow bands across the chest, waist and sleeves, and would remain until 1986, when following the drastic rebuilding of the team a fresh new kit was introduced, this time all-red with a narrow yellow stripe running down each side. Then in 1991, a competition was held for Roy of the Rovers readers to design a new kit for the team. The winning entry was a simple and classic combination of yellow and white stripes with red shorts. Variations on this kit (sometimes using more yellow than red) would continue to be used until the end of the weekly comic, and for the duration of the subsequent monthly one. However, when ROTR strips returned in Match of the Day Magazine in 1997, a new kit had been introduced. Unusually, this kit was predominantly yellow, with a large red star motif across the chest and back. This strip did not last long, however, as the following season another strip appeared. This was again all-red, with yellow trim, and a predominant yellow "V" shape across the front and back of the shirt. This was the last kit that Melchester have been seen to play in.

Away strips were not seen very often in the ROTR comic, but two main designs were used, particularly in the 1980s - a plain blue shirt with white shorts and red socks, and an all-white kit that also sometimes employed red socks. After 1992, Rovers away kits would generally be all-white with some combination of yellow and red trim, and in the Match of the Day strips the same design as the home kit, in white and red, was used.

Shirt sponsorship was intermittent in the strip throughout the 1980s, with Gola appearing on the new kit in 1981 but disappearing the subsequent year. The 1986 kit first appeared with Nike branding, but again this would be removed after one season. The shirts were blank for a while, but in the last couple of years saw the comic's publishers Panini and Fleetway used. When the striped kit was introduced in 1992, meanwhile, it featured Sega as the sponsors. This deal only lasted for a season, however, and for the last season portrayed by the weekly comic TSB appeared on the shirts. This deal carried over to the monthly comic, after which for a short time the shirts were again sponsorless, before a deal with Subbuteo saw that brand appear for the final few issues. The predominantly yellow kit introduced in Match of the Day magazine saw MotD itself as the sponsor, only to be replaced by McDonald's after two episodes. This latter instance marked perhaps the first time Melchester's shirts made use of appropriate corporate colours!

[edit] Achievements

Note that all records are fictional, and only date as far as 2000, the last completed season of the comic strip.

  • FA Cups: 11
    • 1907, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1984, 1990, 1995, 1999

[edit] Notable Players

The Melchester squad of 1986/87, including Blackie Gray and Roy Race, second and third from the left respectively in the front row
The Melchester squad of 1986/87, including Blackie Gray and Roy Race, second and third from the left respectively in the front row

[edit] Managers

  • Ben Galloway (up to 1973)
  • Tony Storme (1973 - 1975)
  • Roy Race (1975 - 1978)
  • Ben Galloway (1978)
  • Roy Race (1978 - 1982)
  • Sir Alf Ramsey (1982 - caretaker)
  • Roy Race (1982-1983)
  • Blackie Gray (1983)
  • Roy Race (1983 - 1992)
  • Mervyn Wallace (1992 - caretaker)
  • Ralph Gordon (1992 - 1993)
  • Roy Race (1993)
  • Mervyn Wallace (1993 - caretaker)
  • Blackie Gray (1993 - 1995)
  • Mervyn Wallace (1995 - caretaker)
  • Roy Race (1996 - )

[edit] Other clubs

Due to the popularity of the Roy of the Rovers strip, a number of amateur football clubs have chosen to name themselves after Melchester Rovers in recent years. Examples include a team in New York City composed of Americans and British citizens living in New York, and a club playing out of Rozelle, Sydney, Australia comprising British, Irish and Australian players. It is also a popular name for fantasy football teams. There is a successful football team in San Francisco, CA, USA called Melchester Rovers, founded in 1997, composed largely of Irish and American citizens.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Up until 1992, the top division of English football was the Football League First Division; since then, it has been the FA Premier League.

[edit] References

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