Peter Roney

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Peter Roney
Personal information
Date of birth (1887-01-15)15 January 1887
Place of birth Rutherglen, Scotland
Date of death 25 August 1930(1930-08-25) (aged 43)[1]
Place of death Clydebank, Scotland
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1906 Cambuslang Hibernian
1906–1907 Ayr 18 (0)
1907–1909 Norwich City 69 (0)
1909–1915 Bristol Rovers 178 (1)
0000–1919 Ayr United 0 (0)
1919–1921 Albion Rovers 10 (0)
1921 Ashington
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Peter Roney (15 January 1887 – 25 August 1930) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Norwich City and Bristol Rovers prior to the First World War.

Footballing career[]

Roney began his footballing career in Scotland with Cambuslang Hibernian, before moving to Scottish League Second Division club Ayr in 1906.[1] He moved to England in 1907 and joined Southern League First Division club Norwich City.[2] Two years later, Roney joined divisional rivals Bristol Rovers and became one of the first goalkeepers to score a goal,[3] when he scored from the penalty spot in the club's final match of the 1909–10 season.[4] As of January 2022, Roney is the only goalkeeper to have scored for Bristol Rovers.[5] He made a total of 178 Southern League appearances during his six-year stint with the club.[6] Roney finished his career after the First World War with Ayr United, Albion Rovers and Ashington.[1]

Personal life[]

Roney was born in Rutherglen, Scotland in January 1887.[1] He married his wife Violet in 1909 and at the time of the 1911 census he had one son, Kenneth.[7]

In 1914 Roney joined the 17th Middlesex Battalion, better known as the Football Battalion, with whom he served as a private in the First World War.[8] He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.[8] He found the realities of war difficult to cope with and the mental traumas that he suffered meant that he only briefly returned professional football,[1] it being reported in 1919 that he had undergone "such experiences during the war that he is unlikely to be heard of again in professional football".[9]

You could hear the Germans talking and singing among themselves as though there was no war on at all. Then all of a sudden our artillery would send them a reminder, and then all you could hear were cries of agony. I've nearly turned grey listening to the groans of the wounded.

— Peter Roney, March 1917[9]

His plight became a matter of concern to Bristol Rovers in 1921 when he was said to have been "down on his luck", "[lying] on a bed of sickness" and suffering from severe rheumatism as a result of his time fighting in the war.[2] The directors of the football club donated ten guineas (£10.10s) to him and arranged for a collection to be made at a Southern League match between Bristol Rovers and Norwich City, his two former clubs.[10]

Roney died on 25 August 1930 in Clydebank, Scotland, at the age of 43.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Litster, John. Record of Pre-War Scottish League Players. Norwich: PM Publications.
  2. ^ a b "Roney Peter Norwich City 1907". Vintage Footballers. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Goalscoring Goalies". Goalkeepers are Different. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  4. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.90
  5. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.91
  6. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.492
  7. ^ "Census of England and Wales, 1911". 1911. Retrieved 22 January 2016 – via Findmypast.
  8. ^ a b "Peter Roney | Service Record". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  9. ^ a b Hudson, John (30 December 2008). "From football pitch to battlefield". This is Bristol. Bristol Evening Post. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  10. ^ "For Peter Roney". Western Daily Press. 11 November 1921. Retrieved 21 January 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.

Sources[]

  • Byrne, Stephen; Jay, Mike (2003). Bristol Rovers Football Club – The Definitive History 1883–2003. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2717-2.
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