When Tony Roofe walks out for the second year in a row with Enniskillen Rangers at the National Stadium at Windsor Park he will be continuing an association with the club that started when he was 15 in 1974.
Some 44 years on, Tony is still involved with club after answering a call from player manager Michael Kerr to help at training and on the sidelines with this current team which has propelled the club back to the top table after a spell in the doldrums.
“To be honest,” explains Tony, “the call came out of the blue and when Michael called I was thinking of plenty of reasons to say no. But I went to take a look at what Michael was doing and how the boys were listening and responding to Michael, after that it was easy to say yes and it has turned out to be a very good decision.”
The splendour of Windsor Park and indeed, the excellent two pitch facility that Rangers now have, is all a far cry from 1974 when he first joined Rangers.
“The first senior club I was involved with was Corinthians, they had a reserve team but could not keep it going and then the late Jim Keenan came and asked my late father Teddy could Rangers sign me? My father was the Corinthians treasurer so Jim was going about things the right way and asking permission. That was the start of it and I never kicked a ball in anger for any other teams apart from the odd summer competitions until I hung the boots up in the early 90s,” says Tony.
He adds: “For the next 15 years I played away, we had lots of successes and a few defeats. To be honest, I never really counted the medal haul but I remember all the defeats the finals, the Junior cups more so than the wins. They were good times, we had great crack and great teams.”
Tony cites elder brother Frankie as a major influence in getting him started in the game in the first instance and the likes of Jim Keenan and Willie McElroy in their early days.
“It was great to get into the team at the start and play with the likes of John Craig, Adrian Hopkins, the Sandersons and Denzil McDaniel. Frankie McPhillips and Brendy McCusker were super players and I played alongside Sparks (Paul Keenan) throughout my career,” reveals Tony.
As a player it was Junior Cup heartache for Tony, a 1989 final loss to then kingpins Oxford United as well as a number of semi-finals defeats.
However, that all changed last year when he was on the sideline as Rangers powered to victory against Hill Street.
“It did elude me as a player and the run to the final did bring back some old memoires of big games and finals, not very good memories to be honest,” he laughs. “So it was nice to get over the winning line last year, that’s for sure.”
12 months on Rangers are back in the final and fighting for the league. It’s a bit like the good old days, save a few grey locks.
“I think the team has progressed well since last year and we definitely have had a tougher passage to the final and played better opposition. It’s been a funny year with so many games called off and it has been hard to build momentum and hence our position in the league title race,” reveals Tony as the ‘Gers face seven games in 14 days after the Junior final.
He is confident that back to back Junior Cups can be won.
“I would be confident we can win and I just hope everybody performs to the level they are capable off and if we do that, then we will be hard to beat,” concludes the Rangers stalwart.