Roy McDonough

Roy McDonough

Personal information
Date of birth	(1958-10-16) 16 October 1958 (age 64)
Place of birth	Solihull, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) [1]
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
	Aston Villa
1975–1976	Birmingham City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1976–1978	Birmingham City	2	(1)
1978–1980	Walsall	82	(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	32	(5)
1985–1990	Southend United	186	(30)
1990–1994	Colchester United	127	(50)
1996	Chelmsford City	3	(0)
Total		567	(130)
Managerial career
1991–1994	Colchester United
1996	Chelmsford City
1998	Heybridge Swifts
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Roy McDonough (born 16 October 1958) is an English former professional football player and manager in the English Football League.

Playing career

Roy McDonough was born in Solihull, he was one of four brothers and a twin to Gaz McDonough. ^[2] He came from a sporting family, and had an uncle Fred Harris, who captained Birmingham City. ^[3] His father, James, played for Bath City and owned a dress shop. ^[3] His mother, Iris, ran a boutique. ^[4] McDonough signed schoolboy forms with Aston Villa, along with his twin, after becoming top-scorer for the Birmingham schools and Warwickshire county school teams. ^[5] However, in March 1975, at the age of 16, he was handed a six-month suspension from competitive football for throttling a referee in the final of the Birmingham Schools Cup. ^[6] He was not offered professional terms by manager Ron Saunders. ^[7]

He used his family connections to win a trial at First Division club Birmingham City, and was signed to an 18-month apprenticeship after he scored four goals in two trial games. ^[8] He went on to sign professional forms with the club, and made his debut in the Football League in a 1–0 defeat to Sunderland at Roker Park on 7 May 1977. ^[9]

He 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 McDonough 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, he became to some fans a cult hero. ^[10] In around 186 appearances he scored 30 times, however certain sections of the crowd were not always enamoured with his playing style.

In September 1990 he returned to Colchester United, who had been relegated to the Football 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, 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, where he made three league appearances, ^[11] amongst others.

Managerial career

Roy took the managerial position at Colchester United for the 1991–92 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 1991–92 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. ^[12]

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."

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 City, Canvey Island, Heybridge Swifts, Bishop's Stortford, Braintree Town and Harwich and Parkeston amongst others.

Style of play

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. ^{[13] [14]}

Later life

In August 2012 he published his autobiography, Red Card Roy, which was ghost-written by Bernie Friend. ^[15]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition ^[16]

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Birmingham City	1976–77	First Division	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	1
Walsall	1978–79	Third Division	34	7	1	0	0	0	35	7
	1979–80	Fourth Division	42	7	4	0	2	0	48	7
	1980–81	Third Division	6	1	0	0	2	1	8	2
	Total		82	15	5	0	4	1	91	16
Chelsea	1980–81	Second Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Colchester United	1980–81	Third Division	12	2	0	0	0	0	12	2
	1981–82	Fourth Division	40	14	5	0	5	2	50	16
	1982–83	Fourth Division	41	8	1	0	7	0	49	8
	Total		93	24	6	0	12	2	111	26
Southend United	1983–84	Third Division	22	4	2	0	2	0	26	4
Exeter City	1983–84	Third Division	16	0	0	0	3	0	19	0
	1984–85	Fourth Division	4	1	0	0	2	0	6	1
	Total		20	1	0	0	5	0	25	1
Cambridge United	1984–85	Third Division	32	5	3	1	1	0	36	6
Southend United	1985–86	Fourth Division	38	7	1	0	4	0	43	7
	1986–87	Fourth Division	33	4	3	3	2	0	38	7
	1987–88	Third Division	42	9	3	0	8	2	53	11
	1988–89	Third Division	40	5	0	0	6	0	46	5
	1989–90	Fourth Division	33	5	1	0	5	0	39	5
	Total		186	30	8	3	25	2	219	35
Colchester United	1990–91 [17]	Conference	24	8	0	0	5	1	29	9
	1991–92 [18]	Conference	40	26	0	0	11	3	51	29
	1992–93	Third Division	25	9	3	0	3	0	31	9
	1993–94	Third Division	38	7	1	0	6	2	45	9
	Total		127	50	4	0	25	6	156	56
Career total			564	130	23	3	74	11	661	144

Honours

Walsall ^[19]

• Football League Fourth Division runner-up: 1979–80

Southend United ^[19]

• Football League Fourth Division third-place promotion: 1986–87, 1989–90

Colchester United ^{[20] [21]}

• Football Conference runner-up: 1990–91
• Football Conference champion: 1991–92
• FA Trophy winner: 1992
• Colchester United F.C. Hall of Fame (inducted 2012) ^[22]

References

General

• McDonough, Roy; Friend, Bernie (2012), Red Card Roy: Sex, Booze, and early Baths. The Life of Britain's Wildest-Ever Footballer, Vision Sports, ISBN   978-1-907637-56-8

Specific

1. McDonough & Friend 2012, p. 12
2. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 7
3. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 11
4. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 13
5. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 3
6. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 4
7. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 9
8. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 14
9. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 23
10. "Southend's cult heroes". BBC Sport. 6 November 2004. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
11. "Archive player appearances: 1996/97 season". Chelmsford City F.C. Archived from the original on 21 June 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
12. "O'Neill will lose out again, says old sparring partner". The Scotsman. 8 May 2003. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
13. Smyth, Rob; Dart, James (20 April 2005). "Top-flight champions as both player and manager". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
14. Cunningham, Matt; Glendenning, Barry; Ingle, Sean (26 June 2003). "Away penalties at Old Trafford". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
15. McDonough & Friend 2012 , p. 1
16. Roy McDonough at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
17. "1990–91 stats". www.coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
18. "1991–92 stats". www.coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
19. "Tier Four (League Two) Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
20. "Conference Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
21. "FA Trophy Honours". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
22. Marston, Carl (13 May 2012). "Roy McDonough inducted into U's Hall of Fame". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 13 May 2012.