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Alan Rough

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Alan Rough
MBE
Personal information
Full name Alan Roderick Rough[1]
Date of birth (1951-11-25) 25 November 1951 (age 73)
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Lincoln Youth Club
Sighthill Amateurs[3]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1969–1982 Partick Thistle 409 (0)
1982–1988 Hibernian 175 (0)
1988 Orlando Lions
1988 Celtic 5 (0)
1989 Hamilton Academical 5 (0)
1989–1990 Ayr United 1 (0)
1990–1991 Glenafton Athletic
Total 596 (0)
International career
1973–1976 Scotland under-23[2] 9 (0)
1976–1986 Scotland 53 (0)
1978 Scottish League XI[4] 1 (0)
Managerial career
1990–1995 Glenafton Athletic[5]
Medal record
 Scotland
UEFA European U-18 Championship
Bronze medal – third place 1970 Scotland Team[6] Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Alan Roderick Rough MBE (/rʌf/; born 25 November 1951) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He won 53 caps for Scotland and played in two FIFA World Cups. He also had a long club career, principally with Partick Thistle and Hibernian.

Since retiring as a player, Rough had a spell as manager of junior club Glenafton Athletic and has worked in the media, particularly on radio phone-in shows.

Early life

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Rough was born in Glasgow and was educated at Knightswood Secondary School.[7]

Club career

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After making his debut at the end of season 1969–70, Rough went on to play a total of 631 games for Partick Thistle in all competitions[8] (409 in the league),[3] which are all-time club record totals. He was a member of the Jags team that defeated Celtic 4–1 in the 1971 Scottish League Cup Final.[9]

Rough told The Scotsman in 2010: "I loved playing for Thistle, loved winning the League Cup with them, and maybe I stayed there too long but that was me. I never thought about 'career' and I never bothered about money. All of my business ventures – the pub in Maryhill, the sports shop in Musselburgh – failed. But I absolutely loved standing in the Wembley tunnel next to these English stars like Kevin Keegan and Emlyn Hughes when I was on 40 quid a week at Thistle, when the previous week at Firhill the crowd had been 2100, and we were about to walk on to the park and enjoy a famous win."[10]

Shortly after his testimonial game in 1982 (Scotland XI vs Celtic),[11] Rough transferred to Hibernian for a £60,000 fee.[12] He was eventually replaced by Andy Goram, who also took his place in the Scotland squad.

After leaving Hibs in 1988, Rough played in the United States with Orlando Lions. He also had spells with Celtic (covering for the injured Pat Bonner), Hamilton Academical and Ayr United before leaving senior football.

He was won the SFWA Footballer of the Year and finished runner-up (separated by a single vote) for Scottish Football Personality of the Year in 1981.[13]

International career

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Rough was chosen for the Scotland under-18s for the UEFA under-18 Euros held on home soil in 1970.[6]

Rough played in two FIFA World Cup tournaments for Scotland, in 1978 and 1982. He played 53 times for his country, keeping a clean sheet in 16 of those games. Rough was Scotland's most capped goalkeeper at the time of his retirement, but that record was broken by Jim Leighton.

Rough's penultimate cap was won in the tragic circumstances of the 1–1 draw with Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff in 1985.[14] Rough came on as a half-time substitute because Leighton had lost his contact lenses.[14] The result, secured by a late Davie Cooper penalty kick, meant that Scotland qualified for a play-off against Australia, but manager Jock Stein collapsed and died at the end of the match.[14] Rough was selected for the finals squad by Alex Ferguson, but only played in one further international.

After playing

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Coaching

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Rough had a successful five-year spell as the manager (initially player-manager) of Junior club Glenafton Athletic after being appointed in 1990.[15] He led the team to three Scottish Junior Cup finals in a row between 1991–92 to 1993–94, also reaching the semi-finals in 1990–91 and 1994–95.[15] Glenafton lost 4–0 to Auchinleck Talbot in the 1992 final and 1–0 to Largs Thistle in the 1994 final,[15] but did beat Tayport 1–0 in the 1993 final at Firhill Stadium (Rough's home ground for much of his playing career), winning the trophy for the first time.[15] The team also added the Ayrshire First Division title and the Ayrshire Cup to make it a treble in 1992–93, the most successful season in the club's history.[15]

Media work

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Alongside Ewen Cameron, Rough co-presented a football phone-in show on Real Radio Scotland until July 2012, when the station replaced the phone-in with music.[16][17] From August 2006 to June 2009, the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports simulcasted the show live twice a week on Setanta Sports 1.[18]

He later co-presented a football show along with Peter Martin shown on STV2,[19] STV.[20] The Football Show was eventually moved to YouTube on the channel PLZ Soccer. Alan Rough continues to be a co-host on the show with Peter Martin on Mondays and Fridays covering Scottish football.[21]

Director

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Rough was appointed to the Partick Thistle board of directors in June 2018.[22] He resigned from this position in July 2019 following a boardroom coup which saw chairman Jacqui Low ousted.[23][24] Rough was re-appointed to the board later in 2019, when Low returned to the chairperson role after the purchase of club shares by her friend Colin Weir. Rough remained a non-executive director at the club until December 2022, when several board members were forced to resign due to fan discontent at the lack of movement on a promise of fan ownership that had been made by Weir before his death.[25]

Personal life

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Rough married Margaret Barry,[10] a Daily Mirror reporter, in 2009 after a seventeen-year engagement. Barry has two children from a previous relationship.[10] Rough was previously married to Michelle, a former model and Tennent's girl.[10] Michelle and Alan had one son, also named Alan.[10]

In an interview with Shoot magazine in 1986, Rough said that during his childhood he had supported Partick Thistle and that Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Bonetti was a hero.[26] He was an electrician before playing football professionally, and he liked to play golf and tennis in his spare time.[26] His favourite television shows included Black Adder and Only Fools and Horses, and his favourite musicians were Dire Straits and ELO.[26]

Rough was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to association football and to charity in Scotland.[27]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by national team and year[28]
National team Year Apps Goals
Scotland 1976 7 0
1977 9 0
1978 7 0
1979 7 0
1980 7 0
1981 7 0
1982 7 0
1983 —
1984 —
1985 1 0
1986 1 0
Total 53 0

Honours

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Player

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Partick Thistle

Scotland national team

Manager

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Glenafton Athletic

Individual

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Alan Rough, London Hearts
  2. ^ "Scotland U23: Rough, Alan". FitbaStats.com. Bobby Sinnet & Thomas Jamieson. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  3. ^ a b Alan Rough at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
  4. ^ "Alan Rough". LondonHearts.com. London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  5. ^ "Scottish Cup football: Juniors' chance to come of age in the Cup". The Scotsman. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  6. ^ a b "Stage set for Europe's stars tomorrow". Press and Journal. 14 May 1970. Retrieved 30 June 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "Kits for Kids: Goalkeeping legend Alan Rough remembers his first strip". Daily Record. 8 April 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  8. ^ Players R, Partick Thistle History Archive
  9. ^ Philip, Robert The day Hansen and Thistle were a thorn in Celtic's side, The Telegraph, 26 October 2006
  10. ^ a b c d e Smith, Aidan (5 June 2010). "Interview: Alan Rough, goalkeeper". The Scotsman. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Jackpot - It's Rough but Alan cashes in". Daily Record. Media Scotland. 10 May 1982. Retrieved 13 May 2017 – via TheCelticWiki.
  12. ^ "A Rough Act to Follow - History of Thistle Keepers". newspaper article, 1992. Partick Thistle History Archive. Retrieved 13 May 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ "AWARD FOR MCLEAN". Press and Journal. 29 May 1981. Retrieved 5 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ a b c "Scots' tragedy in triumph". Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) FIFA, 10 September 2008
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Glenafton Athletic (1930–2005)". Official website. Glenafton Athletic FC. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  16. ^ "Real Radio Scotland". Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  17. ^ O'Hare, Paul (24 July 2012). "Shock as final whistle sounds on Real Radio's football phone-in". Daily Record. Media Scotland. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  18. ^ Real Radio scores with Setanta Radio Today, 7 August 2006
  19. ^ "Peter & Roughie's Football Show (TV Series)".[permanent dead link‍]
  20. ^ Peter & Roughie's Friday Football Show kicks off on STV! STV, 24 January 2018
  21. ^ "PLZ Soccer - The Football Show - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  22. ^ "Alan Rough: Partick Thistle appoint former goalkeeper as director". BBC Sport. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  23. ^ "Partick Thistle: Scottish Championship club in talks with investors". BBC Sport. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  24. ^ "Alan Rough: Ex-Partick Thistle goalkeeper leaves role as Firhill director". BBC Sport. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  25. ^ McCafferty, Gavin (7 December 2022). "Alan Rough among seven Partick Thistle directors to resign amid fan unrest". PLZ Soccer. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  26. ^ a b c Shoot Magazine, Focus on Alan Rough, publisher: Shoot, published: 1986
  27. ^ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B24.
  28. ^ Alan Rough at the Scottish Football Association
  29. ^ a b "List of Honours". Partick Thistle History Archive. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  30. ^ "1981 – Glasgow Cup". Partick Thistle History Archive. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  31. ^ "Alan Rough". Scottish FA. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  32. ^ "New Addition: Stanley Rous Cup-Part 1 (1985)". Soccer Nostalgia. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  33. ^ "Scotland - Player of the Year". RSSSF. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  34. ^ "Partick Thistle Hall of Fame". SPFL. 8 October 2010. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  35. ^ "ALAN ROUGH". Hibernian Historical Trust. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  36. ^ "Alan Rough, 2013 Inductee". SFHOF. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  37. ^ "ALAN ROUGH". GAFF. Retrieved 18 May 2018.

Further reading

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  • Rough, Alan (2006). My Story: The Rough and the Smooth. Headline. ISBN 0-7553-1564-2.
  • Jeffrey, Jim (2005). The Men Who Made Hibernian F.C. since 1946. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-3091-2.
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