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Roy Barry
Date of Birth: 19-09-1942
Position: Central Defender
Joined: 28-09-1966
Appearances: 126
Substitute Appearances:
Goals: 7
Nationality: Scottish
Previous Clubs: Heart of Midlothian
Subsequent Clubs: Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Hibernian, East Fife, Nuneaton Borough

Born: Edinburgh
Debut: 28.09.1966 v FC Frigg (ICFC)
Last game: 11.10.1969 v Morton (SL1)

Despite playing for the Pars for barely three seasons, Barry is still regarded as one of the club`s greatest players. He moved into senior football with Hearts and was there for five seasons before Willie Cunningham paid £13,000 for his services in September 1966.

From being a steady inside forward in his first season, he developed into one of the most feared centre halves in Scottish football. It was no accident that Roy`s captaincy and three seasons at East End Park coincided with three of the club`s most successful seasons ever.

Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup, finished third to equal their highest ever finish in the Scottish League, and came within a whisker of reaching the Final of a major European trophy - a truly remarkable set of achievements for a club like Dunfermline Athletic.

Captain of Dunfermline`s 1968 Scottish Cup winning side, Roy Barry returned to the town in 2004 to attend the Club`s Hall of Fame evening in the Glen Pavilion. The 62 year old travelled back from Croydon to be re-united with his former team mates and was amazed at the reception he got:-

"I can`t get my head round how people have been coming up to me and saying thank you for what you did for the club when you were here. It was only three years but it was a very successful three years under Willie Cunningham and then George Farm."

Roy Barry left Dunfermline in 1969 to join Coventry City:-

"I spent four years there and it was a great introduction to English football because it was good stuff. I went from Coventry to Crystal Palace. A chap called Malcolm Allison brought me there. He and Joe Mercer were a bit of a partnership but I had two disastrous years there. We got relegated and fell below what I was used up here."

After two years at Palace Barry moved back north in 1975 to play alongside his former team mate Alex Edwards at Hibs and ended his career in season 1976/77 at East Fife. Despite all these clubs all the European memories of the 1960s came flooding back but of course for Roy Dunfermline weren`t his first taste of continental competition:-

"In European terms it was a bit of an extension for me because I came to Dunfermline from Hearts and they had finished in the top three or four and I had actually played in Europe. Then coming here I went straight into Europe again which was a big bonus. We just took off at Dunfermline.

"Everything was just buzzing. We had great times playing in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and places like that and doing well."

George Farm was the man who led Dunfermline to Cup success in 1968 but the captain reflected that the team spirit at Dunfermline played a huge part in the success:-

"We had a great bond of players. The guys that I met in Fife were great pals and if we had a defeat we would discuss what happened and if we won we`d go and discuss how we won. We had real team get togethers; we were good mates.

"Successful teams are teams that stick together and play together. There are no splits like defenders staying together and forwards being cleeky. It was just a team thing like guys from your local pub meet up for a dart game once a week."

Roy was the second and sadly the last Dunfermline captain to lift the Scottish Cup but he still regrets being prevented from doing a lap of honour at Hampden Park.

"There had been some trouble there the previous year with Celtic and Rangers. I remember holding the Scottish Cup and hitting a policeman over the head with it because he wouldn`t let me run round the track with it .I was a bit put off with that but I didn`t get arrested."

Roy Barry was 25 when he captained Dunfermline in the 1968 Scottish Cup Final and he has fond memories:-

"To lift the Cup is what every young footballer wants to do. It was a big bonus for me because we beat the Hearts in the Final and I had left the Hearts. The centre forward was Donald Ford who was my accountant.."

Roy left Dunfermline on 20th October 1969 forced to leave Scottish football because of his `bad boy` reputation which nowadays would look angelic:-

"It was a sort of ultimatum `sell him or we ban him`. They can`t do that now." explained Roy.

His record was two sendings off (one with Hearts and one with Dunfermline) and had been banned twice while at Tynecastle for three cautions. Roy agreed that he was Roy Roy agreed that he was possibly harshly dealt with:-

"It was to my advantage ultimately because it extended my career and gave me a different outlook on what was going on. At that time all young Scottish footballers wanted to go down to England and try it out."

When Barry joined Coventry for a fee of £45,000 he found himself playing against the likes of Bobby Charlton and George Best.



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