Birthday Boy Harry – A Total One-Off
Did anyone Bushbury or Fordhouses way find a new book among the discarded fireworks?
Not today, nor yesterday evening nor even this Millennium as it happens, but on November 6, 1991.
That was the morning after the night Brian Roberts stood on the building site that was the demolished old North Bank and, by way of a launch for his hilarious Harry’s Game life story, attached the first copy to a rocket that was last seen fizzing skywards along the line of the Stafford Road.
The unusual ceremony was the idea of publisher and Wolves programme editor Phil Walder and took place at half-time in the Tuesday-night home League game against Bristol Rovers.
It wasn’t the only event that makes this piece topical. Seventy years ago today, the blond former Coventry, Birmingham and Wolves full-back was born in Manchester.
He made his name as a reliable, loyal defender at the Sky Blues, whose spectacular early 2025-26 progress under Frank Lampard was another reason for us wanting to profile this particular individual now.
Brian Roberts pictured at Coventry with another Sky Blues-supporting former Wolves defender, Graham Rodger.
He was sufficiently long-serving to be granted a testimonial game in which he was on the score-sheet (from a penalty), along with fellow Highfield Road old boys Ernie Hunt and Willie Carr.
And here’s another demonstration of his loyalty to the cause. He has now made hundreds more appearances at the mic as a corporate match-day host at the stadium we best know as the Ricoh Arena than the 249 he made for the club on the pitch in League and cups.
I was the ghost-writer of Harry’s Game and had lovely meet-ups with the author both through Bobby Gould at a Coventry home game against Dave Jones’s Cardiff in 2010 and when Albion were beaten at the same venue at Easter.
He is still extremely visible at the club and loving their autumn progress. Lampard’s men hold a four-point lead over second-placed Stoke, who they meet in the Potteries on Saturday. The leaders’ 39 League goals have come at the rate of almost three a game, with the second highest scorers 16 goals behind.
‘Harry’ actually played almost as many games for Birmingham as Coventry and then had an unexpected two-year sojourn under Graham Turner at Molineux from 1990 to 1992.
After a fruitful first season in which he played 24 senior games, he lost his first-team place to Kevin Ashley and was a reserve team regular by the time his publication came off the presses to a gale of laughter.
And, already a sensation with a Sports Argus column that drew admirers from far and wide including George Graham, he was popular enough in various circles to have Jasper Carrott, Bob Hall and Stuart Pearce as writers of tributes on the back cover.
We now dip into the 160 pages of his paperback for seven gems (it could have been 70, one for each year) to remind our readers why he is regarded as one of the game’s true off-field entertainers:
*’Why on earth have I written a book? It’s a question I’ve been asked regularly, especially by my publisher.’
*’I felt lower than a limbo dancer’s backside when I left Blues and found myself on the dole for the first time. I took a look at what I had achieved in the game…..that didn’t take long.’
*’Wolverhampton Wanderers wanted me but they had a ground like the city of Coventry in the blitz.’
*’I walked in and Graham Turner said: ‘Sit down, Harry. NO…not there, you’re hurting my legs. Use a chair.”
Gary Bellamy – looking more rugged in a painful Molineux clash with Ipswich.
*’The gaffer said I was in the team on merit and I would stay there as long as I kept cleaning his car.’
*’He stopped me in my tracks by saying: ‘How about an extension?’ I replied: ‘To tell you the truth, boss, we won’t be having any more family, so three bedrooms are ample. But thanks anyway.’ He said: ‘No, an extension to your contract.”
And on his experiences of being filmed wih some after-shave Wolves were marketing…..*’I was accompanied not by a collection of gorgeous girls but by Steve Bull and Gary Bellamy in the Wolves club shop at the back of the crumbling North Bank. I could see why Bully and I had been chosen with our rugged looks and massive appeal, but why Gary? I thought they were trying to sell the stuff.’