Flashback
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46 years ago - Feb 7, 1969): The Morgan Twins were separated
Photo: Roger Morgan Signing for Spurs
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Flashback: 40 Years Ago: ROGER MORGAN SOLD TO SPURS
Forty Years ago this week QPR's brilliant winger, Roger Morgan was sold to Spurs for 110,000 pounds (at a time when the British transfer record was 150,000 pounds). Twin brother Ian Morgan was rumoured to be joining Spurs later. Photo of Signing: Roger Morgan Signing for Spurs - Photo: "7th February 1969: Footballer Roger Morgan, (left), and Tottenham Hotspur FC manager Billy Nicholson at White Hart Lane, north London. Morgan is signing to play for Tottenham Hotspur. "
Both playersmade their QPR debuts in the 1964/65 season. Ian a few weeks earlier. Roger played in the League Cup Final (and scored). Ian was a non-playing sub. In total: Roger Morgan made 200+ appearances for QPR, scoring 39 goals. Ian played almost 200 games, scoring 26 goals.
From When Saturday Comes re the Morgan Twins
Ian and Roger Morgan, QPR Wonderful World of Soccer Stars 1968-69
- The Morgans were the first twins to play at the top level of English football in the post-war period. After they made their League debuts in 1964 QPR manager Alec Stock asked them to dress differently so he could tell them apart.
- His appeal was in vain, according to Roger: “We’ve got the same choice in clothes and cars and we both married blonde hairdressers but that’s something that happens with twins.”
- Roger, a left-winger, scored QPR’s first goal in their 3-2 defeat of West Brom in the 1967 League Cup final. Ian, a right-winger who later switched to midfield, missed out at Wembley but was an ever-present the following season when Rangers were promoted to Division One for the first time.
- The 1968-69 season was a disaster, however, with the club setting a record low total of 18 points. Roger moved to Spurs in February 1969, where he made a major sartorial impact as the first member of their squad to wear a kipper tie. He played his last match aged 25 in 1971.
- Ian stayed at QPR until 1972 before a brief spell at Watford which was also ended by injury. Both twins became coaches after their early retirement and are still involved with youth football in London.
- (The other top tier twins that we can think of are the Futchers, Ron and Paul, at Luton and Man City, and the Wallaces, Rod and Ray, with Southampton.) When Saturday Comes
QPR Official Site Interview with Roger Morgan from last year
QPR Official Site - April 1, 2008 - BLAST FROM THE PAST - Roger Morgan
- In our latest instalment of exclusive past player interviews on
www.qpr.co.uk, R's legend Roger Morgan comes under the spotlight.
-Roger Morgan (1964-1969)
- Roger Morgan holds a special place in the history of Queens Park Rangers Football Club. He scored our first ever goal at Wembley Stadium.
- It came in the 1967 League Cup Final. Third Division minnows QPR trailed 2-0 at half-time to top flight opponents West Bromwich Albion. But the fight back began in the second period with Morgan heading home in spectacular fashion for the R's on 63 minutes.
- He said: "I still get a lot of stick from my children and other people about that goal! I didn't score that many with my head as it was not one of my greatest attributes, I can assure you. I thought I rose above the defender in the air and nodded home Les Allen's cross. But my kids say the ball hit me on the head and went in!
- "It was a situation where Les chipped it into a space, I arrived there, jumped and nodded it into the net. The rest is history in some respects."
- Rangers were unstoppable on the Wembley turf after that. Rodney Marsh and Mark Lazarus found the net to secure our famous 3-2 victory.
- "You just felt it was inevitable that we were going to win in the end because we were on a roller coaster," said Morgan. " Rodney did his solo bit to level the scores at 2-2 with a great goal. Then Ronnie Hunt went forward and the ball ricocheted around the box. As it came out, I wasn't that far away and I thought I could score.
- "But Mark Lazarus beat me to it and he knocked in the winner. It didn't matter who got it. The ball went in and we were ahead.
- "We all knew that we had the ability to beat West Brom on the day although we didn't start very well. We had been written off by all the pundits beforehand and we probably played like underdogs in the first half. But we put things right after the break.
- "As a footballer, the chance to play at Wembley at any stage of your career is fantastic. But I was only 20 so it was a really great day for me."
- Morgan originally came up through the youth ranks at Loftus Road, playing alongside his twin brother Ian. The two lads were so identical that Rangers boss Alec Stock asked them to adopt different haircuts so that he could tell them apart.
- "I think it helped our careers that we were twins. Yes, Ian had his own identity and I had mine as a player. But there were times when the football public would talk about the twins that were playing in the same side at QPR and people didn't know which one was Roger and which one was Ian. So it got our names known.
- "We were very lucky that we were given our first team opportunities at Rangers at a young age. We were both 17 at the time. Ian made his debut at home to Hull City in September 1964 and I joined him in the side the following week against Gillingham. So all of a sudden, a football talking point was that there were two youngsters playing on the wings at QPR that were unique in the sense of being identical twins.
- "To us, it was just two footballers playing and one was Roger and one was Ian. We didn't think we were identical. But obviously other people always said we were very much alike.
- "So we tried to alter our hairstyles. I used to say to Ian 'We've got to change it for our own identity. Whether one has longer hair than the other or a bit shorter. We'll have to do something.'
- "People still come up to us now and say 'Which one are you?' But our closest friends know the difference so easily as we are like chalk and cheese."
- Morgan was part of the Rangers side that went on to win back-to-back promotions up to the old First Division. Then he eventually moved to Tottenham Hotspur for £110,000 in February 1969.
- Nowadays, Morgan is 61 in a couple of months and is still involved in football on the coaching side. But he is set to cut back on his involvement in the near future.
- "I have worked at West Ham United for 18 years as Football In The Community Manager. But I am planning to retire in October and my son Andrew is going to take over. My other son Jason runs the Community scheme at Charlton Athletic. It is great that both my lads are involved in football, even if they are not actually playing.
- "I'm going to keep myself busy by doing some PE teaching in a school for a couple of days a week. It will be multi-sports with 'short tennis' and athletics for primary school kids.
- "Apart from that, I will no doubt end up doing the garden and the fencing for my kids as well as playing with my grandchildren!" QPR
See Also: Ron Norris/QPR Net Fabulous Interview with Roger and Ian Morgan
....On The Spurs Move:
Roger: Apparently I could’ve gone to Chelsea or Newcastle but Spurs was just round the corner from my house and I was a boyhood fan so it felt like a dream come true. I remember on my first days training playing one touch on the ball courts and we’d never done this at Rangers and it totally passed me by. Going there was fantastic at the time, if I hadn’t got injured then who knows how it might have turned out.
Ian: I was absolutely gutted. There was a lot of talk about us going off together to Spurs for two hundred grand, then it changed to Roger going first and me following in six months and in the end Roger went on his own. I remember when he told me he was as upset at me not coming as he was pleased that he was going. Funnily enough our next game was against Spurs and we both played. That’s life I suppose, Roger was a better player than me anyway...."
>Ron Norris/QPR Net Interview with Roger and Ian
Morgan qprreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/qpr-not-on-worlds-richest-clubs.html
Read more:
qprreport.proboards.com/thread/38382/roger-morgan-sold-spurs-nicholson#ixzz3rRwXssvM
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