Anton Rogan(Co. Antrim)

Born in the Lenadoon Area of West Belfast, he played his International football with the North of Ireland. A journalist once described the reception given to him as the worst ever given to an International player anywhere at anytime.

Anton's only crime was to be a Roman Catholic playing for Glasgow Celtic.

Any Celtic fan will refer to him simply as Anton. Though three of his five seasons at Parkhead were barren, Rogan collected three winners medals an enjoyed a fair degree of success at the expense of Rangers, whose fans are still inclined to sneer at the mention of his name.

Few moments in his career were sweeter than when he opened the scoring against them in a League encounter back in March 1991. Billy McNeill's side had galvanised themselves after a poor first half to the season and kept their hope of silverware alive by dismissing Greame Souness's Rangers 2-0 in a Scottish Cup quarter final tie in which four players were red-carded.

When the sides met for a second successive Sunday at Celtic Park on League business, Rangers were looking for revenge but Rogan's early strike put them on the back foot and goals from Joe Miller and Tommy Coyne wrapped up another emphatic win.

Rogan remembers "It wasn't the most stylish goal you ever saw, Tommy Coyne got a touch from a corner and the ball dropped to me. I hooked it towards goal and it trickled past Chris Woods. But the feeling couldn't have been any better if I'd rattled it in from 30 yards. I just went daft."

His Celtic move, originally set up in 1984, was delayed for a couple of years by Two broken legs suffered while playing for Distillery in his native Belfast.

Another game Rogan recalls with affection is a 2-1 win at Ibrox, which went a long way towards sealing the centenary season title in 1987/88. With the score level 1-1 and little over 10 minutes remaining, he soared above the Rangers defence to meet a corner kick. Anton being Anton he simply didn't power it into the net but glanced it down to Andy Walker who re-directed the ball into the net with his chest in true poaches fashion. "I was aiming for the badge in Andy's shirt!" says Rogan, tongue firmly in cheek

Anton had spent five years with Celtic, two years with Sunderland, two years with Oxford, two years with Millwall and a final two with Blackpool.

"It was a career that I dreamt off as a schoolboy. I was part of the Celtic side that won the double in 1988 during the club's centenary year that is very special to me. I have no regrets from my career. I've played in a Scottish Cup final, which we won, and an FA Cup final, which Sunderland unfortunately lost; very few players achieve that during their career.

"If I was asked which players stood out amongst those that I played with it would have to be three Celts, Danny McGrain, Paul McStay and Frank McAvennie, they were excellent players.

Now living back in Oxford with his girlfriend and son, Liam, Anton says that he is settled and looking forward to live outside the game. A college course beckons in the New Year, but he has few regrets after his 15-year professional career, which began with Distillery.

"My disappointments of course would be that penalty miss against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Final which everybody seems to remember when my spot kick lost the cup to Aberdeen."

P. Sweeney (Secretary)
Parkhead House,
Dungloe,
Co.Donegal.
Ireland.