Great Left Backs - Bill Rochford

The first of a new series on the great left backs that have played for Saints

Southampton has for some reason always seemed to reserve the left back position for someone special, for whatever reason those who have occupied this berth have usually had that something a little different about them, we start this series with Saints first post war number 3.

Although Saints started the post war years in the second division for some reason the full back positions on both sides were very strong, on the right you had Bill Ellerington and Alf Ramsey, both of whom not only vyed for the Saints position but the England one as well,on the left you had Bill Rochford.

Rockie as he was known had been a member of the Portsmouth FA Cup winning side of 1939 and was one of those whose career was interupted by World War 2, he was 26 when hostilities started and in his prime, when it ended six years later he was 32, indeed he would be another year older before the first official post war season of 1946/47 and thus Pompey did not see him as part of the long term future.

So Saints snapped him up for £550 and he became the cornerstone of a side that for several years was on the brink of promotion to the top flight, but just seemed to fall at the final hurdle.

A very stern and imposing figure he was the obvious choice for captain and was a father figure to the team, not least Alf Ramsey who often cited the influence that Rochford had on his play and the way that Ramsey wanted the game to be played.

In August 1949 at age 36 and with his playing career drawing to a close, Bill has aspirations to manage and he applied for the vacant job at the Dell, he seemed the favourite to get it, being both the the players and supporters choice, however the board thought differently and gave the position to Sid Cann who in fairness had been assistant manager in the past three years so could be said to be more qualified.

Rockie however was given the job as player coach but it seems he was a little disapointed to be overlooked and in 1950 he took up a similar position at Colchester United who were about to play their first season in League football, his stay at Layer Road was brief though as injury curtailed his appearances on the pitch to just two games and he soon returned to his native North East to become a farmer.

However his links with Saints were still strong and the club employed him as their North East scout.

Sadly he died in 1984 a few months short of his 71st birthday, his name wont be too familiar to Saints supporters, indeed given his last game was nearly 62 years ago, you would need to be in your 70's yourself to remember seeing him play, but he was the first of the great post war left backs for Saints and in his four seasons at the club he was a virtual ever present till his last game in January 1950, playing 128 league games and 6 in the FA Cup. for a full back his scoring record was decent, knotching 8 league goals.          

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