by Barry Smith
PART FIVE - MODERN ROMANS (1992-2007)
Many changes took place within the club after the 1991-92 season, including the departure of Alan Beaman as team manager, but the team consistently maintained a top-ten league position before becoming founder members of the Midland Football Alliance in 1994-95. The new league was formed from an amalgamation of the leading sides in the West Midlands League and the Midland Combination.
Rocester finished in second place behind Bloxwich Town in 1997-98 and narrowly missed out on promotion to the Southern League.
However, work had been carried out on the
ground (now renamed Hillsfield in memory of Don Hill who died in December 1994)
to meet the required grading for the Southern League, and a year later under the management of Terry Greer,
the Romans finally achieved
their ambition by being promoted as
Midland Alliance League Champions.
The step up to a higher level proved to be a difficult one, but despite struggling in the league the team reached the final of the Staffordshire Senior Cup for the first time in 2000-01. The experience was soured somewhat by Port Vale's insistence that they weren't able to play the final at the end of the season, and against Rocester's wishes the game was re-scheduled for the following pre-season when many of the players that had helped the club into the final had moved on. When it was eventually played, Port Vale had no problem in sweeping aside a makeshift Rocester side 6-1 at Hillsfield.
Warren Campbell was appointed manager at the start of the 2002-03 season which gave the club a fresh impetus, but his input was still not enough to avoid relegation back into the Midland Football Alliance by one point. Only 34 goals scored in the 42 league matches told its own story.
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Having returned to the Alliance Rocester were soon back on track, and promotion was achieved at the first attempt in May 2004 thanks to a 1-0 win over Oldbury United at Hillsfield in the final game of the season. Predictably the goal was scored by prolific striker Paul McMahon (pictured left), it was his 37th league goal of the season and his 50th in all competitions, winning him the Midland Alliance's Golden Boot award.
Due to further re-organisations within the non-league pyramid, instead of returning to the Southern League the Romans were placed in Division One of the Northern Premier League for 2004-05 - a move that proved to be a complete disaster for the club.
The season got off to a bad start when a trip to Mossley on the opening day resulted in a 5-1 defeat, but even that rude awakening to the faster and more physical style of football in the Northern Premier League gave no hint of what lay ahead. |
Belper Town won 2-0 at Hillsfield in the next match, but that was followed by three successive league draws and an emphatic 4-1 win away at Arnold Town in an F.A. Cup Preliminary tie. There were signs that the players were beginning to warm to their task, but a miserable run of seven straight defeats left them lacking in confidence and rooted to the foot of the table.
Results failed to improve, and by Christmas manager Warren Campbell had left the club and so had several of the players. including top scorer McMahon.
It was downhill all the way. A new manager, Bob Sykes, was appointed in January, but in truth he had a hopeless task in attempting to turn fortunes around. Only three more draws were achieved all season and the Romans officially became the worst team ever to have played in the Northern Premier League, finishing with just six points and not a single league victory all season.
Relegated back to the Midland Alliance, the 2005-06 season began as miserably as the previous campaign had finished. Manager Sykes departed at the end of August following a 3-1 defeat at Bedworth United in the F.A. Cup, and was replaced by former Chasetown boss Michael Rowe in September.
Although performances improved under Rowe it wasn't until the end of January that the team recorded it's first league victory - a 3-1 success at Quorn - which ended a run of 67 league matches without a win. Three more wins came before the season's end which gave the team a slight chance of climbing out of the relegation zone, however six defeats in the final eight matches ensured a second successive last place finish. Luckily, Rocester avoided another relegation thanks to league restructuring.
A new era began at the end of the 2005-06 season when local businessman and former player Peter Douglas took over the club. His first actions saw the appointment of Damian Grocott as first team manager and the introduction of several new people to the committee.