|
Born
in Manchester on January 30th 1959, Roger Palmer signed apprenticeship
forms for Manchester City on leaving school and was given his first team
debut by manager Tony Book, at just 18 years of age, in a 2-0 away
victory over Middlesbrough on December 27th 1977, Hartford and Owen
getting the goals. He made 4 appearances that season and opened his
goalscoring account for the club when he got both goals in a 2-2 draw
with Newcastle at St James' Park in March '78, swiftly followed up the
next week with another strike in a 2-1 home defeat of Ipswich Town.
At
the beginning of the 1978/79 season the team made a poor start in the
League with no wins in the first four games, and the young Palmer was
given a chance to stake his claim for a place in the side when Leeds
United visited Maine Road on September 9th. He duly obliged with another
brace in a 3-0 win and kept his place for a 1-1 away draw with FC
Twente in the UEFA Cup four days later. Further outings in Europe were
to follow, with appearances in both legs of the win against Standard
Liege and perhaps City's finest ever performance overseas when they drew
2-2 in the San Siro with the mighty AC Milan. A 4-2 aggregate defeat by
Borussia Moenchengladbach saw the club knocked out in round five, and
disappointing defeats to Shrewsbury and Southampton in both the FA Cup
and League Cup ensured the season ended on a low note, the 15th place
finish in the league the lowest since 1966/67. Palmer had made 10
appearances in the league and scored 4 goals.
Before the start of the
following season Malcolm Allison, who had returned to the club as
'coaching supremo' the previous July, had taken over first team affairs
from Tony Book, and he proceeded to get rid of a number of established
and popular players. Chairman Peter Swales sanctioned a number of
expensive purchases to replace them, including an astonishing British
record transfer fee of £1.5 million for Steve Daley from Wolves. Palmer
found it increasingly difficult to get into the side and made only 5
league appearances all season, his solitary goal coming in a 3-2 defeat
at Wolves in early December. Along with defeats to Sunderland in the
League Cup and Fourth Division Halifax Town in the FA Cup a 17th place
finish in the league meant another poor season overall for the Blues. By
the time Palmer got his first start of the 1980/81 season, in the derby
match against Manchester United, it was late September and the Blues
were without a win in the league in the first seven games. Despite going
2-1 down to a disputed Arthur Albiston goal, Roger, who had been a ball
boy at Old Trafford, equalised in the last minute to give City a share
of the spoils and salvage local pride.
The next three games, however,
ended in defeat and Allison was sacked and replaced by John Bond, whose
appointment on October 17th signalled the end for Palmer at Maine Road.
His last game for the club was in a 1-0 away defeat against Leeds United
on October 8th, and he was never selected by new manager Bond who
deemed Roger's languid, laid-back style of play not in keeping with his
own football philosophy. In total he had made 41 league and cup
appearances for City in his five years with the club and scored 11
goals. In November 1980 Palmer was transferred for an undisclosed fee to
Oldham Athletic, where he went on to become the club's leading
goalscorer of all time with 141 goals before retiring from the game in
1994. (David Redshaw).
|