Stafford Rangers mourn a hero of their ‘70s glory days

Former forward Roger Jones, who scored 105 goals for the club in more than 300 appearances, died last week.

He was a member of the side that reached the fourth round of the FA Cup in 1974/75 and the FA Trophy final in 1976 and 1979.

Although Rangers were beaten 3-2 by Scarborough in the dramatic 1976 final, it was Jones who got both of the Stafford goals.

Jones, who hailed from Stafford, was on Walsall’s books as a youngster, during which time he was in the England Youth squad. He initially joined Rangers at the age of 19 from local amateur league club Kingston in the summer of 1968 and made his debut at Ashton United on 10th August 1968 in Rangers’ 5-0 away victory on the opening day of the Cheshire League season.

He scored his first goal for the club two days later at Marston Road against Winsford United and was the regular centre forward that season and scored 28 goals as Rangers finished second to secure ‘promotion’ to the Northern Premier League.

Jones played in the opening NPL game against Fleetwood but after playing just a handful of games and scoring one goal he joined Rhyl in October 1969. Later, he moved to Oswestry and it was while he was with the Shropshire side that he made a guest appearance for the Rangers at Chelmsford City in the Non League Champions Trophy at the end of the 1972 season as Ray Williams was unavailable.

Despite an impressive performance on his return to the black and white stripes, he remained with Oswestry for another season before Roy Chapman brought him back to Marston Road as a replacement for Brian Fidler.

His second spell at Marston Road was to last three years during which time Roger played a part in the memorable FA Cup run in 1974/75, scoring a hat-trick at Kings Lynn.

Injury ruled him out of the tie against Stockport County but he was back for the subsequent rounds which saw victories over Halifax Town and Rotherham United before the epic run came to an end against Peterborough United in front of 31,160 at Stoke City’s Victoria Ground.

In the following season he was a member of the team which narrowly missed out on a repeat of the treble success achieved by the club in 1972 as Rangers finished runners up in the Northern Premier League, FA Trophy and Staffs Senior Cup.

In the FA Trophy final defeat at Wembley that day he produced a superb performance and became only the second player to score twice in the final. At the end of the season, Roger travelled to Italy with Rangers and scored against both Udinese and Monza in the Anglo-Italian Tournament. Jones returned to Wembley in May 1979 for the victorious FA Trophy final victory over Kettering but had to be content with the substitute’s shirt. He also had spells at Cheltenham Town, Hednesford Town and Walsall Borough.

n Rangers have re-signed forward Kaiman Anderson after he left Walsall Wood. They have also recruited pacy winger Jon Atherton from Chasetown and Reinaldo Forbes, from Studley Town.