Bobby Langton

bazza Bobby Langton was born in Burscough, Lancashire on 8th Sept 1918. He joined Rovers from Burscough Victoria when he was 19 years old, initially as an amateur, soon turning professional in Sept 1938. He contributed to the promotion winning side back to the top flight of the 1938-39 season scoring 14 goals in 37 appearances. He was a very fast left winger who could cross a ball from every angle. He liked to cut inside from time to time and unleash a shot like a cannonball. I remember one of his goalbound shots cannoning off the forehead of John Charles, the Leeds United centre half, and bouncing on the roof of the Darwen End. The crowd stood in awe as Charles just shook his head instead of collapsing poll-axed. (This was in the 1950s.........I’m not THAT old). As well as being a winger, he liked to go into the centre forward’s spot to score goals . He could dribble too. Wartime disrupted everything but after playing for Glentoran in Ireland as a guest and thrilling the spectators there, he made a total of 42 wartime appearances for Rovers scoring 7 goals. After the war he scored 5 goals in 70 games between 1946 and 1948. When Rovers were relegated to the second division Langton was sold to Preston North End for £14,000 in August 1948 where he scored 14 goals in 55 games. In November 1949 Bolton Wanderers bought him for a club record fee of £20,000. He scored 16 goals in 118 appearances for the Trotters. He played in the 1953 FA Cup Final. He returned to Ewood aged 34 in Sept 1953 to be part of a well-remembered forward line of Douglas, Crossan, Briggs, Quigley, Langton. Although age had slowed him down he had lost none of his guile and still thrilled the Rovers fans. In those three seasons he played 105 games scoring 33 goals. He was capped for England 15 times; seven of those whilst with Rovers. My father-in-law reckons he was better than two other great wingers McLeod and Harrison in that he was more skilful than just sprinting down the touchline and crossing the ball; but that was in his young days, not the fifties. So Bobby was fast, a good dribbler, a good crosser, liked to get into the penalty area and score goals, had a rocket shot and took the penalties. Also he got capped for England in the heyday of Matthews and Finney.

trawdenblue - Bobby Langton used to beat defenders and then go back and beat them again!! The crosses he put in were so hard that defenders ducked! He made a lot of goals for Tommy Briggs. My Dad told me that Bobby Langton was the best player he has ever seen. That's good enough for me.

jim mk2 - Langton is a legend among older Rovers followers

Mike Harrison

thenodrog - Good player Harrison. My schoolboy hero cos I played left wing for the school in those days. He had tree-trunk thighs, a shot like a cannon, was seriously quick and a superb penalty taker. He represented England briefly at U21 (or U 23 not sure which).

jim mk2 - Harrison had power and pace and a thunderous shot,

Dave Wagstaff

jim mk2 - Wagstaffe, although in his declining years, had a left foot made in heaven.

Bryan - He came to us from Wolves where he spent most of his career - including a European final - and I have no doubt he would walk into their all-time team. Jim Smith signed him for next to nothing as Wolves clearly thought he was shot, but that proved to be far from true. He alone kept us from dropping back down to the third in our first season up. He could dribble at least as well as Duffer, but he wasn't really a get to the bye-line and cross it kind of winger. More often than not he would release John Bailey to do that. His forte was to get the ball on the left wing just inside his own half. Then, seemingly without even looking, he would unleash a 60-70 yard crossfield pass over their left back which had so much backspin on it that it would almost stop dead for the onrushing Kevin Hird to latch onto. His god-like status at the time was cemented by his opening goal in the historic 3-2 Boxing Day victory at the Turd. The arrival of Jim Iley as manager spelt the end, both for Waggy and for Iley, when he sold him to Blackpool and replaced him with the European cup winning but usless John Aston. After Iley was sacked, the caretaker manager John Pickering brought Waggy back, but as 92-er reported earlier, Waggy was injured after 2 games and never appeared again.

waggy - as my name dictates every football fan loves a winger. Waggy was one on his own. He also has his name in history of being the 1st footballer to get the red card.