Rocky Baptiste

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Rocky Baptiste
Personal information
Date of birth July 8, 1972 (1972-07-08) (age 35)
Place of birth    London, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position Forward
Club information
Current club Havant & Waterlooville
Youth clubs
Chelsea
Brentford
Wealdstone
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2000
2000–2001
2001
2001–2003
2003–2004
2004–2005

2005–
Hayes
Luton Town
Hayes (loan)
Farnborough Town
Stevenage Borough
Margate
Gravesend & Northfleet
Havant & Waterlooville
14 0(6)
03 0(0)
07 0(5)
44 (15)
18 0(4)
12 0(5)

29 (12)   

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Rocky Baptiste (born 8 July 1972) is a football player for Havant & Waterlooville.

Born in London, Rocky went to secondary school at Neasden High (School is no longer open. Closed in 1990). Baptiste was a junior at Chelsea and Brentford, but failed to earn a professional contract. After initially playing for Wealdstone, Baptiste made his breakthrough with Hayes in 2000, where he scored 6 goals in 14 league games and caught the eye of Luton Town. At a struggling Luton, Baptiste made three league substitute appearances without scoring. When Joe Kinnear became manager, Baptiste fell out of favour and made a return to Hayes on loan for the rest of the season.

During the close season, Baptiste signed for Farnborough Town, where he stayed for two years scoring a total of 19 goals in 48 appearances, including Farnborough's lone strike in the FA Cup fourth round defeat to Arsenal. In the summer of 2003, Baptiste joined Stevenage Borough, following manager Graham Westley's move, where he stayed until February 2004 scoring 4 league goals. Baptiste moved on to Margate, scoring five goals. After a short spell with Gravesend & Northfleet, Baptiste moved to Havant & Waterlooville in August 2005. Rocky became a popular figure at Westleigh Park, but came under fire when his personal and language difficulties with teammate Guy Lopez, caused the French midfielder to leave the club. Most notably, Baptiste scored the equaliser at the Liberty Stadium that forced a replay with Swansea City in the 3rd round of the 2008 FA Cup. He also went on to score in the shock 4-2 replay victory that helped them into the fourth round against Liverpool. Although Rocky did not manage to get his name on the scoresheet in Havant & Waterlooville's 5-2 loss at Anfield, the game was a dream come true for him, as he is a known life-long fan of Liverpool.

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