Rogan, Anton

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Fullname: Anthony Rogan
aka
: Anton Rogan, Rogie
Born: 25 March 1966
Birthplace
: Belfast
Signed:
9 May 1986
Left:
4 October 1991
Position
: Defender, Full-back, Left-back
First game: Hamilton Accies 8-3 home League 3 January 1987
Last game: Airdrie 0-0 (lost on pens) away League Cup 3 September 1991
First goal: Hibernian 1-0 home League 21 January 1987
Last goal: Motherwell 2-4 Hampden SCSF replay 9 April 1991
Internationals: Northern Ireland
International Caps: 18
International Goals: 0

BiogAnton Rogan

Northern Ireland international Anton Rogan will always be fondly remembered as part of the Celtic side which won the league and cup ‘double’ in the club’s Centenary season.

Signed from Northern Irish side Distillery in 1986 Rogan made 148 appearances in the Hoops, however it could have been far more but earlier moves to Celtic aborted for two years due to injury due to two broken legs. He made his debut in the trophy-less season of 1986/87 under then boss Davie Hay. Billy McNeill replaced Hay in the summer of 1987 and Rogan quickly impressed the new manager and established himself as a first-team regular.

Hard tackling and energetic Rogan, although not the most skilful of players, was a robust, attacking full back who relished the chance to charge down the left-wing. His over-lapping runs and crosses were a regular source of Celtic attacks during that famous Centenary season. Indeed it was his fine cross which set up Frank McAvennie’s equaliser against Dundee United in that most dramatic of cup finals.

He recalls fondly the Centenary season, especially the 2-1 win v Rangers at Ibrox. With the scores at 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 poachers fashion. “I was aiming for the badge in Andy’s shirt!” says Rogan, tongue firmly in cheek. A great moment in his career.

Celtic never built on that double success though and like many of his team-mates Rogan would spend the next few seasons as part of a Hoops team which struggled badly to keep up with a Rangers team supported by a level of finance and ambition which the Parkhead board had no intention of matching.

Cup final success against the Ibrox side in 1989 briefly papered over the cracks as Celtic went into freefall. Rogan’s form and confidence suffered as the mediocre Bhoys quickly became sorry also-rans in the quest for domestic honours.

In 1990 came his nadir. In the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen, it all went down to penalty kicks and Anton was to take the next penalty at 9-8 to keep us in the game. Sadly, it was saved and he was down and distraught over the miss, Billy McNeill (manager) having to come over to console and pick him up. Years later, Anton recalls: “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.” The reason it was so well remembered was that Anton never received the opportunity to turn it all around and make up for that miss. Celtic didn’t win a cup final again till 1995 (or even reach a final), so that moment was stuck in our minds for a long time.

In fairness, for any single match he should be best remembered for scoring the opener in the 3-0 victory over Rangers in March 1991, his first against them (just day before his birthday), but he also set up the second and cleared a goal off the line, a star on the day. Followed on from an explosive Scottish Cup game the previous week, with Celtic beating Rangers 2-0, then a rare double back-to-back victory over the Huns in those days. There were few if any other bright moments for the Celtic support for a long time.

In time as managers changed, Rogan, was no longer a first team regular under new boss Liam Brady, and he eventually left Glasgow in 1991 to join Sunderland in a £350,000 deal. Part of this was due to cost cutting and bringing in new finance and new faces. Probably was a good idea that he be given a fresh start somewhere away from the divided world of Belfast and Glasgow.

Despite the decline in the fortunes of the club and his own form, Anton remained a well liked player among the support mainly due to his committed and combative approach to the game. Never the most cultured of footballers, the Belfast-born player was prone to the odd error but his attitude and association with the glory days of the Centenary season meant he was almost universally liked.

Sadly though this affection was not shared by some so-called supporters of Northern Ireland who regularly subjected Rogan to vile sectarian abuse. This shameless display of bigotry was a consequence of Rogan being both a Catholic and a Celtic player. When Anton Rogan, another Celtic player, warmed up before his first international cap in the 1980s he was stunned to hear his own team’s fans singing, “If you hate Anton Rogan, clap your hands!

One journalist once described the reception given to him by the Northern Ireland fans as the worst ever given to an international player anywhere at anytime. The same hate-filled individuals would raise their ugly heads again more than a decade later when Neil Lennon moved to Celtic Park.

After his days in Glasgow, Rogan enjoyed some success in England and played in the 1992 FA Cup final for Sunderland in their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool. After leaving Roker Park spells at Oxford, Millwall and Blackpool followed.

At time of writing, he lives in Oxford with his family.

We wish him all the best.

Playing Career

Club From To Fee League Scottish Cup League cup Other
Blackpool 01/08/1997 11/05/1999 Free 10 (5) 0 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Millwall 11/08/1995 31/05/1997 Free 30 (6) 8 2 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 1 (0) 0
Oxford 09/08/1993 11/08/1995 Signed 56 (2) 3 4 (0) 0 4 (0) 0 2 (0) 0
Sunderland 04/10/1991 09/08/1993 £ 350,000 45 (1) 1 8 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 2 (0) 0
Celtic 09/05/1986 04/10/1991 Signed 115 (12) 4 18 (0) 1 12 (1) 0 8 (0) 0
Lisburn Dist. 01/08/1985 09/05/1986 No appearance data available
Totals £350,000 256 (26) 16 32 (0) 1 19 (1) 0 13 (0) 0
goals / game 0.05 0.03 0 0
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Premier Division

Scottish Cup

Pictures

Podcasts

ANTON ROGAN INTERVIEW

Ant becomes Rogan hero

Football

Sun, The (London, England)
June 23, 2003
Author: Steve Smyth

ANTON ROGAN was a Glasgow Celtic stalwart – a player who overcame a catalogue of injuries to write his name into the Parkhead club’s history as a member of Billy McNeill’s centenary year league and Cup double winning team. Today, his life doesn’t revolve around football – but, instead, he concentrates on the asbestos disposal business he set up with a friend in Oxford. “A dangerous occupation? Not really the regulations these days are so strict,” he said. Rogan, who made 18 Northern Ireland appearances, married Nicki an Oxford girl when he was playing for the local club. They live at Bladon and have two sons Liam, four, and Conal 18 months.

System
His mum Patsy and father Sean still reside in Belfast – where the young Rogan learnt his football. Disaster struck him when on the verge of joining Celtic from Irish League club Distillery – then managed by Roy Welsh – in the late 80s. He recalled: “I was scheduled to travel to Glasgow and discuss terms when I broke my left leg in a Irish League game against Crusaders. “Celtic, however, still maintained their interest in me. When I had recovered John Kelman who looked after the club’s striking system invited me to join Celts on a youth tour of Holland. “Alas, I broke the same leg in one of the matches, was sent home thinking my professional career was over before it had begun. “A prolonged rehabilitation followed, Celtic kept their promise and signed me.” A year later, in the 1987-88 season when Celtic were celebrating their centenary, Billy McNeill, one of the Parkhead immortals and member of the 1967 Lisbon Lions European Cup-winning team, gave him his breakthrough.

Characters
The fans who in an earlier generation had idolised Charlie Tully, another Belfast import took the young Irishman immediately to their hearts. Rogan said: “There were some wonderful characters at the club – Frank McAvennie, Paul McStay and Charlie Nicholas. “And what a fantastic atmosphere, too. To be part of that set up was really something.” Rogan’s Parkhead career came to a halt on the arrival of Liam Brady as manager.

Circumstances forced him to introduce a cost-cutting exercise which saw Rogan depart to Sunderland for Pounds 750,000. Fortune, however, smiled on him at Roker Park. He became an instant success and was included in the 1992 FA Cup final team against Liverpool at Wembley which they lost 2-0. Rogan admitted: “It was the correct outcome for we were simply not at it in the second half.” Then followed spells at Oxford, Millwall – where a fellow Ulsterman Jimmy Nicholl was in charge – and eventually Blackpool – with Nigel Worthington. Rogan, 38, was first capped against Yugoslavia in 1988 and the last against Germany as a substitute in 1997.

There should have been many more appearances but while Billy Bingham omitted him on occasions, this was due primarily to a series of injuries. “Each time I was about to get fit I would pull a hamstring,” he said. “It proved a problem all the way and I had a heel builder inserted in the boot but eventually I had to undergo in Blackpool to remove a cyst from my knee.” A regret in football? “Yes,” he said. “I as disappointed I didn’t play for Northern Ireland in the World Cup finals of Spain 82 and Mexico 86. “That would have been a dream come true.” The departure of Anton Gerard Patrick Rogan came much too early. Still, he made an invaluable contribution to club and country.

Belfast Telegraph (based on LostBhoys podcast interview Oct 2010)

Short and unspectacular as it was, there is little doubt that Anton Rogan’s international career was memorable.

Memorable, though, for all the wrong reasons.

Players all over the world get booed and jeered by opposition fans. It’s part of football and always will be.

When fans give the same kind of treatment to a player on their own team it’s a different story.

As a Catholic from west Belfast who was playing his club football for Celtic, Rogan became a target.

Twenty-two years later players from the same area as Rogan have elected to play for the Republic of Ireland, while two particular Celtic players are amongst those who are favoured most by Northern Ireland fans.

As despicable as it was that Rogan’s first appearances for his country at Windsor Park was marred by abuse from a section of the Northern Ireland support, he wouldn’t have followed any other route onto the international scene and he insists that where you’re born should dictate who you play for, not holding dual nationality.

“I was born in Belfast and I had to play for Northern Ireland. That was my philosophy and always had been,” he said.

“If I’d been born in Dublin I’d have played for the Republic, but I was born in Belfast and I wanted to play for Northern Ireland.

“I enjoyed playing for Northern Ireland

“Things have changed since 1988. You don’t see Paddy McCourt or Niall McGinn coming on and getting booed, which is good for football and it’s good young boys like that play for Northern Ireland because they are born there.

“If you’re born there you play for Northern Ireland.”

The spring of 1988 is the most memorable time of Rogan’s career.

Not only was he fulfilling his boyhood dream by becoming a regular in Celtic’s first team, the Glasgow giants were on their way to marking their centenary year in style.

Rogan was 22-years-old when Billy McNeill — who had captained the club to their 1967 European Cup success — led Celtic to a historic league and cup double.

The Lenadoon-man’s happiness was blighted, though, when he played for Northern Ireland against Poland just a couple of days before his 22nd birthday.

His first couple of international appearances came away from home in late 1987 and early the following year in the low-key surroundings of Yugoslavia and Greece.

It was when he stepped out at Windsor Park that things changed — and it was all down to his religion and the club he played for.

The strange thing was, however, that Rogan saw it coming.

“I got called into the international squad and I was on the bench against Poland at Windsor Park. Billy Bingham said I was coming on, and when I stood on the halfway line a lot of people started booing me,” Rogan told Celtic fans’ website lostbhoys.com.“I wasn’t really surprised, because I played for Celtic.

“There’s Celtic and Rangers and I know that a lot of Rangers fans support Northern Ireland. That’s football, but I got booed as I just ran onto the pitch.”

That was the first time Rogan was jeered during an international, but it wasn’t the last.

Eighteen of Rogan’s 19 caps were won in a four-year period before a brief return four years later.

Over 20 years since he was playing regularly in the green shirt, however, few who watched Northern Ireland during the late 80s have forgotten the fate that befell Rogan.

Neither the Northern Ireland team or the supporters have ever been exclusively Protestant, but Rogan stepped onto the scene at a time when sectarian tensions here were at one of their highest points.

Just a few weeks before Rogan’s first appearance at Windsor Park, three IRA men were killed by the SAS in Gibraltar and the events which were to follow — Michael Stone attacked mourners at those IRA funerals, killing three people and when those he killed were buried a few days later two off-duty soldiers were murdered in west Belfast when they inadvertently drove into the cortege.

“I was aware of things when I went onto the pitch and I knew what I was going into before I went onto the pitch,” said Rogan.

“It wasn’t rocket science to know it was going to happen.

“I was the first Celtic player to play for Northern Ireland for a long time.

“This was 1988 and there was still a great deal going on, so I expected it.

“Belfast was a hard place to be, there were a lot of things going on that were very unsavoury.

“It was just football to me, there was never anything else in my mind.

“Once it happened, I just had to get on with it and 90 per cent of the fans were fine.”

Anton Rogan enjoyed eightsome reel on his Celtic debut

By: Paul Cuddihy on 03 Jan, 2019 09:41

http://www.celticfc.net/news/15553
• IT was on January 3, 1987 that Celtic played host to Hamilton Accies in a Scottish Premier Division match.
Manager Davie Hay made three changes to the starting XI which had lost the Ne’erday derby two days previously, with Danny McGrain and Willie McStay returning to the side. The third change was a 20-year-old Irish defender who was making his Celtic debut.
For Anton Rogan, it proved to be a memorable game as the Hoops beat Hamilton 8-3, with Brian McClair scoring four of the goals while Alan McInally and Murdo MacLeod both scored two apiece.
Over the next five years, Rogan would go on to make 169 appearances, scoring five goals and playing his part in the Centenary double success, and the 1989 Scottish Cup triumph (picture below)
In the recently published book, This Is How It Feels To Be Celtic, the Belfast Bhoy recalls the day he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to play for Celtic.
Celtic, and Davie Hay in particular, had kept faith with their original judgement of Anton Rogan as a footballer, having initially wanted to sign him in 1984 as an 18-year-old. Two years and two leg breaks later, he finally put pen to paper on a contract and headed over the water to begin life as a Celtic player.
It was a difficult transition for the young Irishman, however, with an initial lack of first-team opportunities helping to fuel the homesickness he was suffering from, to the point where he was ready to give up on Paradise and head home to Ireland.
Anton Rogan explained: “When I signed in 1986, I stayed with a family in East Kilbride and they were really nice people. I was 20 and it was my first time away from home, and I tried to have a go at it. In the first couple of months, I was playing for the reserves and only playing a game here and there, and I found that quite hard, while going from part-time football to full-time football isn’t easy as you have to adjust to so many things.
“It got to around November and everyone I knew was back home in Ireland while I was in Scotland, sitting on my own and I started to think that I’d had enough. I decided to wait until Christmas and when I went back home, I’ll just say to my parents that I wouldn’t be going back.
“I played really well in the reserves throughout November and December and everyone was raving about me, but that didn’t matter. I just wanted to be home. No matter what age you are, if you travel away, you get lonely, and I was on my own most of the time, except from the family I was staying with.

“Davie Hay told me I could go home between Christmas and New Year, so I left on Christmas Eve and I wasn’t due back until December 30th. I went home to Belfast and I had a great time with my family and friends all in the house to see me.
“When it was quiet, I said to my dad that I didn’t fancy it and I wasn’t keen on going back. He told me that the decision was up to me and that he’d respect it, whatever it was, but if he was in my shoes, he’d go back and see out the season and then make a decision, because it was only another four or five months. So that’s what I decided to do.
“I went back on the 30th, and then Rangers beat Celtic 2-0 in the New Year’s Day game. After that game, Davie Hay told me I would be training with the first-team the following day, although I just thought I was making the numbers up.
“There was an old guy who used to sell newspapers around Glasgow, and he used to know everything that was going on at Celtic. I don’t know who it was who gave him the information but he knew everything. So when I walked out of Celtic Park after training on the Friday, he said, ‘Get your boots looked out because you’re playing tomorrow.’ That’s the Gospel truth. I don’t know how he knew but he did.
“The following day, Tommy Burns picked me up at the Clarkston Toll roundabout, we drove into Celtic Park and, sure enough, I was in the starting XI for the home game against Hamilton Accies, which, thankfully, we won 8-3. After that, for me, my life completely changed. I went from sitting in my own in the house and not seeing anyone, to all of a sudden meeting lots of people. When you play for Celtic, your life does change. For me, the defining moment in my career was when my dad suggested I should go back to the end of the season. If he hadn’t said that, I would have stayed in Belfast and my life would have been completely different.”
Given that he didn’t get much advance notice of his Celtic debut, Anton Rogan was struggling to let family and friends back home know about his good news. He did manage to call his dad, though, and a source of parental pride surged down the line between Belfast and Glasgow, with Anton leaving it to his dad to spread the word, given this was in the pre-mobile phone and Internet era.
“I remember I walked out of Celtic Park after the game and four of my mates were standing there waiting for me. They had hired a car and driven over from Belfast, just to see me play. Danny McGrain came out and saw me with them, and invited them into the stadium so that they could get pictures in the tunnel and the side of the pitch.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone to come over for my debut as it was such short notice, and the fact it was just after New Year and we’d just lost against Rangers. So it was brilliant to see them there after the game.
“One of them, Tony Rooney, was my football manager when I was a kid for Red Star, the team I had come across to watch Celtic with back in 1977. When he saw Danny, I thought he was going to faint. The next thing, Tony was standing talking to his idol.
“That’s probably why Danny became my idol as Tony loved him so much. Even now, when I talk to Tony, he still says that was the best day of his life … a grown man and he’s still saying that over 30 years later. I just loved Danny McGrain.
“I was lucky enough to play alongside him, which was absolutely fantastic. What a man he is. I just loved the way he played football and the way he was. He was a humble man and had no arrogance about him. For me, it was always Danny.”