Rogan, Anton

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Biog

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 a 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 Rangers 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.

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Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Premier Division

• 1987-88

Scottish Cup

• 1988, 1989

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Pictures

• Player Pics

Podcasts

• LostBhoys Podcast Interview

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Articles

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.

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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.”

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Anton Rogan enjoyed eightsome reel on his Celtic debut

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