Don Rogers (footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald Rogers (born 25 October 1945) was an English footballer who has often been seen as the most exciting player to pull on a Swindon Town shirt; his principal rival in this respect being Harold Fleming. He played at outside left and served the club in two spells. He scored twice in the famous 3-1 Football League Cup Final victory over Arsenal at Wembley in 1969.

Born in Paulton, Somerset, Rogers signed a youth contract with Swindon in January 1961 at the age of fifteen; having turned professional in October 1962, he made his first-team debut on 17 November in a Third Division match against Southend United.

He signed for Crystal Palace in 1972 for a fee of £147,000, then joined Queens Park Rangers in September 1974 in an exchange deal involving Terry Venables and Ian Evans. Rogers played 18 league games for QPR scoring 5 goals before returning to Swindon in March 1976 in exchange for Peter Eastoe.

In November 1976 Rogers moved on loan to the Southern League team Yeovil Town, where he joined his old Swindon team-mate Stan Harland. He returned to Swindon two months later and, after suffering a hip injury, retired at the end of the 1976–1977 season and now runs a sports shop in Swindon bearing his name.

In 2004 an authorised biography by Peter Matthews was published and Don was seen to be signing copies of it in the local W H Smith's.

On Saturday 22nd march 2008 Swindon Town announced that the south stand would be renamed The Don Rogers Stand from the start of the 2008/09 season.

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