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Reading the other thread about Dieng with interest and I notice that Stejskal appears to be accepted as the best keeper since Seaman - imho I agree.
I was only 11 - 15 when he was with QPR, which makes me a bit young to understand all things football, but why was there such a tussle for the number 1 jersey with Roberts at the time? I do know there were communication problems in his first season which arguably carried through - eg those three terrible goals against palace.
By all accounts Roberts gets pellets on this board - but he and Jan pretty much shared the jersey throughout the early to mid 90’s?
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Stejskal and Roberts on 14:56 - Feb 8 with 1500 views
The running joke among the Motley Crue I hung around with was we couldn’t remember Roberts ever making a save. Arrogant off the field as well. Done well as a GK coach from the jobs he got.
[Post edited 8 Feb 2021 14:58]
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Stejskal and Roberts on 15:12 - Feb 8 with 1480 views
The story is that Don Howe went to the 1990 World Cup with the notion of signing Peter Schmeichel but as the tournament wore on he thought that Stejskal was the better keeper and prospect so he signed him instead.
The grass is always greener.
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Stejskal and Roberts on 15:22 - Feb 8 with 1451 views
Never proved, but Roberts allegedly had sexual relations with sheep. He started supporting Chelsea until it was spelled out for him that the manager’s name was Mourinho not Merino!
I remember a League Cup game up at Hull (I think - could have been Bury?) where having made a decent save, a little band of Rangers fans chanted "There's only one Tony Roberts" followed by "Tony Tony give us a wave", which he did. Only to look back aghast when this was immediately followed up by "Sheep, sheep sheepshagger..."
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Stejskal and Roberts on 15:23 - Feb 8 with 1448 views
Stejskal wasn't great when he arrived, but he was decent once he settled.
IMO Roberts wasn't as bad as some make him out to be. He did have some horror shows at various times though, and his kicking was often terrible.
Remember as teenagers going to watch the team during training at Barclays Banks Sports Ground during half term. Stejskal hadn't long signed. Wilkins walked over to us and said "Look at the size of him. He's a flippin' roof tiler" and proceeded to chuckle away to himself
[Post edited 8 Feb 2021 18:29]
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Stejskal and Roberts on 18:03 - Feb 8 with 1334 views
Never understood how Roberts got as many games as he did for us. For me he was never a top level keeper. Didn't he have to retire early after leaving us and then make a comeback years later?
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Stejskal and Roberts on 18:11 - Feb 8 with 1319 views
Never understood how Roberts got as many games as he did for us. For me he was never a top level keeper. Didn't he have to retire early after leaving us and then make a comeback years later?
Yeah, think it was a broken finger that never quite recovered and it eventually forced his retirement from professional football after he left us to join Millwall. Pretty sure he got an insurance payout and the terms meant he was only allowed to play non league not professionally which is where he ended up at Dagenham & Redbridge before they got into the league.
Stejskal and Roberts on 18:11 - Feb 8 by CamberleyR
Yeah, think it was a broken finger that never quite recovered and it eventually forced his retirement from professional football after he left us to join Millwall. Pretty sure he got an insurance payout and the terms meant he was only allowed to play non league not professionally which is where he ended up at Dagenham & Redbridge before they got into the league.
And he paid it back so he could play the following season.
favourite cheese mature Cheddar. FFS there is no such thing as the EPL
Stejskal and Roberts were our two keepers when the back pass rule changed and Stejskal in particular really struggled with it, he was massively left footed and had the first touch of a pissed zombie. Roberts did too, in fact a whole load of previously rated keepers had to learn a new element of their game and the first season was full of goals as the keepers struggled and failed to boot the ball clear.
Jan was f–king streets better than Roberts though, why we stuck with Roberts and Ready for so long as we descended the leagues God only knows.
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Stejskal and Roberts on 01:29 - Feb 9 with 1132 views
Stejskal and Roberts on 13:12 - Feb 8 by CiderwithRsie
That was the thing with Roberts, he had a few blinding games and especially early on you thought he might have the makings of a good keeper. Conversely Stejskal made a few ricks especially early on.
But Stejskal got better and if he hadn't wanted to go home I think he'd have become a very good keeper. These days he'd have probably stayed. Whereas Roberts if anything got worse. He never did get any good at GKs and he was better at shot-stopping than the basics of commanding his area.
For the OP, that's why Roberts gets pelters, it's not that he was godawful it's that he was never quite good enough and it was obvious he'd never be more than back-up but when Stejskal went he got the job for years, it was crazy. Karl Ready in front of him was the same, I used to feel sorry for Wales.
I'm not even convinced that Roberts was a good shot stopper. He would follow up great saves with absolute howlers and therefore inspired little confidence in his defenders.
Here's a beauty whilst playing at D&R:
I've often wondered what QPR could have achieved between 1992 and 1995 with a decent regular goalkeeper.
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Stejskal and Roberts on 01:32 - Feb 9 with 1132 views
He always reminded me of those hillbilly characters you see in horror movies about whom it is said: 'Oh don' you worry 'bout ol' Cleatus. He ain' quite right inna head but he's mos'ly harmless, ain' that right boy?' just before the barn catches fire and he is found covered in blood, wearing a necklace of foreskins.
[Post edited 8 Feb 2021 11:21]
"a necklace of foreskins". Spit my coffee out reading that
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Stejskal and Roberts on 11:00 - Feb 9 with 1047 views
He never seemed to take himself particularly seriously, Roberts, which I sort of appreciated.
That 92/93 season was my first one watching us live. Always vividly remember TR spending the warm-up whacking the ball into his own net which I didn't think exactly struck the right tone.
Obviously that was him practising his kicking but it didn't inspire confidence: on one occasion I was standing right at the front of the lower loft to the right of the goal and he managed to launch it smack into the face of the 9 or 10 year old kid standing beside me. Was all very awkward and painful.
There seems to be a definite theme around kicking with both keepers, which as someone above said, had to be partly related to the rule change. Remember Wilkins yelling down the pitch from the centre circle at Stejskal during one game: "KICK IT OUT OF YOUR FCUKING HANDS JAN!" :)
[Post edited 9 Feb 2021 11:11]
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Stejskal and Roberts on 11:19 - Feb 9 with 1035 views
Stejskal obviously a much better keeper than Roberts.
But also Roberts nowhere near as bad as many people remember him being.
Always thought he got more stick than he deserved just because he wasn't quite up to the very high standard of the rest of the team at that time.
Holloway & Barker also got stick for the same reason but we'd kill for a midfielder of their standard now!
Wilkins, Wilson, Parker, McDonald, Maddix, Sinton, Wegerle, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Sinclair etc were players that would've got into any Premiership team at the time. Roberts wasn't up to that high standard, but there were worse keepers playing in the Premier League at that time. (e.g. Forrest, Poole, Walker)
The general standard of the team back then was so much higher than anything we as a club have even got close to since that even the poorest players in that squad were streets ahead of most of the dross we've had since.
I think it's ridiculous that Roberts sometimes gets mentioned in the "worst QPR XI" threads that come up on here from time to time. With the exception of Smithies & Kenny he was a better keeper than pretty much anyone we've had in the last 20 years!!
And I would definitely take Tony Roberts over either of the keepers we had in our recent spells in the Premier League (Green, Cesar)