Roy McDonough

Roy McDonough

Personal information
Date of birth	(1958-10-16) 16 October 1958
Place of birth	Solihull, England
Playing position	Forward
Youth career
–	Aston Villa
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1976–1978	Birmingham City	2	(1)
1978–1980	Walsall	84	(15)
1980–1981	Chelsea	0	(0)
1981-1983	Colchester United	93	(24)
1983-1984	Southend United	22	(4)
1984	Exeter City	20	(1)
1984-1985	Cambridge United	35	(5)
1985-1990	Southend United	186	(30)
1990-1994	Colchester United	156	(56)
Teams managed
1991–1994	Colchester United
1996	Chelmsford City
1998	Heybridge Swifts
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Roy McDonough (born 16 October 1958) is a former professional football player and manager in the English football league. His surname is occasionally misspelt in the media as Roy McDonagh.

Playing career

McDonough, a native of Solihull, England, was dubbed Donut or Big Roy by his fans. He clocked up some 150 goals in over 650 appearances in the professional and semi-professional (or "non-league") competitions in England. While he turned out for a handful of national clubs, he spent the majority of his career in the county of Essex.

A tall, imposing forward (though he played as an orthodox centre-half on a number of occasions) he had a reputation as one of football's "hard men" and rarely shied away from the physical aspects of the game. As a result he is the record holder for the most dismissals in a career, 22, and for red cards in the Football League, 13, an unenviable mark that he holds jointly with Steve Walsh^[1][2][3]

He began his career at Birmingham City in 1977 making 2 appearances. Roy went on to Colchester to make some 88 appearances, scoring 24 goals in his first spell at Layer Road before moving to local rivals Southend United in 1983. In 22 appearances for the "Shrimpers" between 1984 and 1985 he scored 4 times.

Between 1985 and 1986 Roy moved first to Exeter City(21 appearances, 1 goal) and then Cambridge United (32 appearances, 5 goals) before returning to Roots Hall and Southend. In his second spell at Southend, Roy became to some fans a cult hero.^[4] In around 186 appearances he scored 30 times, however certain sections of the crowd were not always enamoured with his playing style.^[5]

In September 1990 he returned to Colchester United, who had been relegated to the GM Vauxhall Conference, as a player. In his second season, he top scored with 29 goals in a Conference and FA Trophy Double-winning campaign as player-manager (see below), before making another 63 Football League appearances and scoring 16 times. He was sacked as manager in 1994 and joined Dagenham & Redbridge, moving on to Chelmsford City amongst others.^[6]

Daily Mirror and Sunday People sports journalist Bernie Friend has worked with Roy on his autobiography, Red Card Roy (in reference to his unenviable record of getting red cards), which was published on August 20, 2012, by Vision Sports Publishing.

McDonough was inducted into the Colchester United Hall of Fame in 2012, owing to his success as a player in two stints with the club, and being the first U’s boss to lead out a Colchester team at Wembley.^[7]

Managerial career

Roy took the managerial position at Colchester United for the 1991–1992 season, following Ian Atkins' departure in the Summer of 1991 and achieved legendary status at the North Essex club by guiding them to a Football Conference and FA Trophy 'double', promoting them back into the full Football League.

During his period in charge, McDonough stoked the bitter rivalry with Martin O'Neill's Wycombe Wanderers that had developed during both clubs' time in non-league's 'top flight', culminating in the dramatic promotion season of 1991–1992 when Colchester advanced into Division Four on the last day via a superior goal difference. While Wycombe and Colchester played out a mini-league of their own (both clubs finished some 21 points ahead of their nearest rivals) Big Roy had on occasions taunted the Wycombe players and staff and antagonised them by un-sportsmanlike tactics.^[8]

Commenting on an incident where Colchester United hooligans attacked home supporters during a Conference championship deciding match in 1992 at Adams Park, he was quoted as saying, "It takes two to fight, one to punch, the other to stand there and be punched."^[9]

Arguably it was his confrontational style, carried over from his playing days, that ultimately saw him leave Colchester and move through the non-league ranks with Dagenham & Redbridge, Chelmsford, Canvey Island, Heybridge Swifts, Bishop's Stortford, Braintree Town and Harwich and Parkeston amongst others.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Won %!
Colchester United		1 July 1991	15 May 1994	155	69	33	53	44.5
Chelmsford City		1996	1996	?	?	?	?	?
Heybridge Swifts		February 1998	September 1998[10]	?	?	?	?	?

Honours

As a player

Walsall^[11]

• Football League Fourth Division Runner-up (1): 1979–80

Southend^[11]

• Football League Fourth Division Promoted (2): 1986–87, 1989–90

Colchester United^[12][13]

• Football Conference Winner (1): 1991–92
• Football Conference Runner-up (1): 1990–91
• FA Trophy Winner (1): 1991–92

As a manager

Colchester United

• Non-League Manager of the Year (1): 1991–92
• Football Conference Winner (1): 1991–92
• FA Trophy Winner (1): 1991–92

References

External links

• Roy McDonough career stats at Soccerbase