Full name William Robert Roffey ?–1971 Crystal Palace Name Bill Roffey Position Defender | Playing position Years Team Role Footballer | |
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Date of birth (1954-02-06) 6 February 1954 (age 61) Place of birth Stepney, Greater London | ||
leyton orient v fulham 1973 74 bill roffey spectacular
William Robert "Bill" Roffey (born Stepney, Greater London, 6 February 1954) is an English former footballer, who played as a defender.
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League career
Roffey began his youth career at Crystal Palace signing professionally in May 1971. In October 1973, he moved on to Leyton Orient, for whom he made 328 appearances in eleven years. Whilst at Orient, Roffey was part of the side that reached the FA Cup semi final in 1978, where the team lost 3–0 to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. After a loan period at Brentford in 1984, (13 games,one goal), he finished his Football League career at Millwall, for whom he made 37 appearances over the next two seasons scoring twice. Roffey made a total of 401 league appearances between 1972 and 1986.
Later career
Roffey then had a spell away from football before moving into non-league football with Barnet in 1988, (3 appearances). He then spent three seasons with Leixoes of Portugal before retiring at the end of the 1990–91 season. However, in 1991 Roffey joined former Leyton Orient playing colleague, Tommy Taylor, then manager at Margate, and went on to make 38 appearances in season 1991–92, scoring three times. For 1992–93, Roffey joined Canterbury City where he stayed until 1994 including a brief stint as player-manager. He then returned to Margate as manager but despite having retired after leaving Canterbury City, continued as a player, making 35 appearances in season 1994–95, without scoring. In 1995 Roffey moved to Tonbridge Angels where he initially worked as assistant-manager alongside Phil Emblem. However, during the season, Roffey replaced Emblem as manager and also made playing appearances, mainly as a substitute. Roffey continued to serve Tonbridge as manager until October 1997 when he resigned and ended his involvement with football.