Roddy Jones made 323 appearances and celebrated just like the most devoted fans on the terraces every time he netted one of his 71 goals.
Perhaps an element of that was his being a lifelong County fan. This is reflected when he made his debut at Colchester in 1969/70. Simply sitting in the dressing room next to our longest serving player Len Weare, he said made him truly elated.
By full time his opposing keeper and defenders were desperate pleading the Referee for him to leave the field of play; especially their centre-half who Roddy made him panickily volley into his own net!
Roddy remained part-time throughout his career but was still one of the fittest out there after 90 minutes.
Roddy was one of the st ar players in 1972/73, when we lost out on promotion simply on the narrowest of goal averages.
Indeed, his presence was also a major factor during our ‘Great Escape’ in 1976/77.
For Roddy his favourite moment was at Chelsea in the League Cup. He
put two of their club legends, Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and Micky Droy, under pressure to the degree that their manager Dave Sexton complimented him after the game.
Indeed, Roddy will tell you his best ‘goal’ was in that game – or it would have been had it not been disallowed for his strike partner Willie Brown being offside.
It would have been allowed today, as Willie was out on the wing and
not interfering with play.
Roddy returned as player-coach in 1983 and was inducted in to the Hall of Fame on 18th September, 2009.
