| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Harold Roberts | ||
| Date of birth | 12 January 1920 | ||
| Place of birth | Liverpool, England | ||
| Date of death | 11 February 2007 (aged 87) | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||
| Playing position | Outside left | ||
| Youth career | |||
| – | Everton | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 193x–1939 | Harrowby | ? | (?) |
| 1939–1948 | Chesterfield | 92 | (9) |
| 1948–1951 | Birmingham City | 34 | (2) |
| 1951–1953 | Shrewsbury Town | 70 | (16) |
| 1953–195? | Scunthorpe United | 17 | (1) |
| 1955–1956 | Matlock Town | ? | (?) |
| 1956–1957 | Gresley Rovers | ? | (?) |
| 1957–19?? | Burton Albion | ? | (?) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
|||
Harold Roberts (12 January 1920 – 11 February 2007), also known as Harry Roberts, was an English professional footballer who made 213 appearances in the Football League playing for Chesterfield, Birmingham City, Shrewsbury Town and Scunthorpe United.[1] He played as an outside left.
Roberts was born in Liverpool.[2] As a 16-year-old he spent a season with Everton, and then played for Harrowby. He joined Chesterfield in September 1939, just before the Football League was suspended for the duration of the Second World War.[3] During the war, Roberts served with No. 2 Commando. He was wounded in the legs and captured during Operation Chariot, the raid on the French port of St Nazaire in 1942, and owed the possibility of a football career to the repair work carried out by a German surgeon.[3][4] Roberts spent three-and-a-half years in a prisoner of war camp in Bremen. On his return, he lodged with Chesterfield coach and former England international Joe Spence, whose individual work with Roberts played a major role in his recovery.[3]
He scored on his first-team debut, in the 1946 FA Cup at home to York City, and made his Football League debut on 31 August 1946, in the Second Division in a 1–1 draw at home to Bradford Park Avenue.[5] Described as "an outside-left of great distinction, ... skilful, intelligent and, above all, fast, with an excellent pin-point cross", Roberts made 92 league appearances for the club in two-and-a-half years. In November 1948 he moved on to Birmingham City, recently promoted to the First Division, for a fee of £10,600, at the time a record fee received by the Chesterfield club.[3] During his time at Birmingham he suffered a number of injuries which restricted his appearances to 38 in a two-and-a-half year stay. At the end of the 1950–51 season, Roberts joined Shrewsbury Town of the Third Division South,[2] where he played regularly for two seasons[1] before finishing his league career with infrequent outings for Scunthorpe United over a further two seasons.[6]
Roberts then played non-league football for Matlock Town, Gresley Rovers, for whom he scored 6 goals from 38 games,[7] and Burton Albion, and helped with the coaching of Matlock Town's reserve team as they won the Central Alliance Division Two title and League Cup in the 1959–60 season.[8][9] During the 1960s Roberts spent eight years as a youth worker at Staveley Chantry youth club, where he established a football team. He then returned to Chesterfield F.C., initially as an assistant youth coach, and remained at the club until 1983, when he was one of several staff dismissed by a new board of directors. He later acted as a scout for Sheffield United and Rotherham United.[3][10]
Roberts was married to Dorothy and had two sons,[10] one of whom, Peter, also played league football for Chesterfield.[3][11] Harold Roberts died in hospital in Chesterfield in 2007 at the age of 87.[10]