Dudley Roberts

The son of post war City hero Ted Roberts, Dudley never fulfilled his early promise but was a regular reserve team player for the remaining two years of his career at Highfield Road. His father was renowned for his heading ability and Dudley inherited those skills and displayed them by scoring prolifically at Cheylesmore School. After joining the Sky Blues as an apprentice in 1961 he was converted to a defensive wing half and played in City’s youth team with Bobby Gould and Pat Morrissey. In the autumn of 1965 he was called up to play at centre-forward for the reserve team after injuries to the regular strikers. Impressive performances earned him a first team call-up at Preston and he did not let the side down.

Four days after his debut Dudley played an important role in a 3-2 League Cup win at Maine Road and had a goal disallowed. His home debut against Charlton coincided with his 20th birthday and he celebrated with two goals in a 3-1 win, one a close range shot from a Ken Hale cross, the second a trademark header. Goals against Plymouth, Portsmouth and Ipswich took his total to five in five. He missed several games through injury and when he was fit Jimmy Hill had signed Bury’s Ray Pointer to boost the attack.

Dudley made only five further appearances, one of them at right back during an injury crisis. When star striker George Hudson was controversially sold to Northampton his place went to Bobby Gould and Dudley stayed in the reserves.

Dudley did not appear in the first team during the promotion season but was a virtual ever-present for the reserves. In Division 1 he made only one appearance, at Hillsborough in Jimmy Hill’s last game in charge.

In March 1968 he joined Mansfield Town for £6,000. He went straight into the first team at Field Mill and for the next six years he was a prolific scorer for the Stags. In total he scored 73 goals in 231 appearances and was the Third Division’s leading scorer in the 1970-71 season. Several big clubs expressed an interest in him and Mansfield rejected bids of £60,000 from top-flight clubs.

In 1974 he joined Scunthorpe where he had two successful years adding 17 more goals to his overall tally before a serious knee injury ended his career.

In 1969 he had married Rose McNulty, the original Sky Blue Rose from the Jimmy Hill era. Rose had been the first recorded voice that kept City fans up to date with news on the telephone in the days before mobile phones and text services.