Iwan Roberts

Roberts broke through in the following season, making 31 appearances in all competitions and scoring three goals, but Watford finished 19th in the table and were relegated to the Second Division.

Iwan Wyn Roberts (born 26 June 1968) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward from 1986 to 2005 for a number of clubs and the Wales national team.

Iwan Wyn Roberts was born in Bangor, Gwynedd, on 26 June 1968.

He grew up in Barmouth, on the west coast of Wales, as a Liverpool fan.

Roberts says that most football fans would know him ("if you know me at all") as "that gap-toothed ginger lunk".

He started losing his front tooth when he was just 10: his best friend's heel chipping half of his tooth off, the result of an incident playing football.

Some years later, a dentist removed the stump when an abscess developed.

He lost his second front tooth as the result of an elbow to the mouth from Darran Rowbotham when he was 18, playing for Watford in a pre-season friendly.

Roberts credits his school PE teacher, Iolo Owen, as a great influence in his career, introducing him into men's football aged 15: "He picked me for the school team and got me into the local men's team, Harlech Town... as he was the manager... it toughened me up and made me a lot stronger."

Critical to Roberts' thinking when he joined Watford was that coach Tom Walley was, like himself, Welsh-speaking, as was professional Malcolm Allen, against whom Roberts had played in the local Welsh leagues.

He was also influenced by Graham Taylor's record of giving youth players opportunities.

His footballing career started at Watford as a trainee before signing his first professional contract with the club in 1986.

Roberts joined Watford as a trainee, signing his first professional contract in July 1986, shortly after his 18th birthday.

Roberts made his first-team debut during the 1985–86 season and scored his first goal in professional football on 16 September 1986; it was the only goal in a 1–0 win against Manchester United at Vicarage Road.

Having made only one full first team appearance for Watford prior to the match, Roberts came on as a second-half substitute to score the winning goal from a narrow angle.

Watford ended the season in ninth position, and despite having three years of his contract remaining, Taylor left the club to join Aston Villa.

The 1988–89 season saw him make 32 appearances in total, scoring six goals, with Watford finishing fourth, but failing to progress past the 1989 Football League play-offs.

Roberts' chances were restricted the following season, when he made just nine league appearances, scoring twice.

He played international football for Wales and amassed fifteen caps between 1989 and 2001, without scoring.

Roberts made 647 league appearances during his career, almost half of which were for Norwich, where he overcame a weak start to become a fan favourite.

At his peak, he scored 61 goals in three seasons, and finished with two goals in his final game as Norwich achieved promotion to the Premiership.

He moved to Huddersfield Town in 1990 where he remained for three seasons before transferring to Leicester City.

Roberts signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers after three further seasons, but stayed for a single campaign before transferring to Norwich City, where he spent seven years.

He scored nine goals in 63 league matches in total for Watford, but felt that he was failing to get enough opportunities and moved to Division Three club Huddersfield Town prior to the start of the 1990–91 season, for £275,000.

One of his contemporaries at Watford was future Norwich City manager, Glenn Roeder.

Roberts remembers Roeder as "an absolute gentleman ... I can't speak highly enough of him. He helped me a great deal with his experience and any problems that the young lads had they knew he would help them with."

Roberts credits a lot of his success as a striker to the interaction he had with Huddersfield's then first-team coach, Peter Withe: "Peter was exceptional in the air and he taught me so much on how to use my physicality properly and how to move defenders about especially in the penalty box which would enable me a bit more time and space in the box."

The club then signed Frank Stapleton, who helped the young Roberts develop "awareness in the opposition's penalty box" and how to "steal goals" to increase his goal tally, getting a final touch to 'help' a goalbound ball cross the line.

The 1991–92 season brought Roberts a club post-war record 34 goals in a season, 24 of which were in the league, making him joint top-scorer in the division.

His efforts helped the club to finish third and qualify for the play-offs.

There they lost to Peterborough United where Roberts failed to score in either leg.

Overall, whilst playing for Huddersfield he scored 50 goals in 142 games.

In November 1993 he was signed by the Second Division club Leicester City for £300,000.

Neil Warnock, Huddersfield's manager, needed to sell players and Leicester manager Brian Little took an interest.

Roberts made his debut for Leicester in a Midlands derby against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At half time, Leicester were two goals behind and he expected manager Brian Little, "the nicest man" he ever played for to rant in the dressing room, but instead he quietly told the players he was going to make two substitutions.

He was elected to the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame in 2002, while still at the club.

His professional career ended with spells at Gillingham and on loan to Cambridge United.

Since retiring as a player, Roberts, who speaks fluent Welsh, has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Cymru Wales.

His book, All I Want for Christmas ..., a reference to his gap-toothed appearance, prompted both controversy and praise when it was published in 2004.