Terry Conroy

Terry Conroy

Personal information
Full name	Gerard Anthony Francis Conroy
Date of birth	(1946-10-02) 2 October 1946
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Position(s)	Winger, Forward
Youth career
	Home Farm
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1965–1967	Glentoran	24	(17)
1967–1979	Stoke City	271	(49)
1979	Bulova SA
1980–1981	Crewe Alexandra	37	(5)
1981–1982	Waterford	14	(0)
1982–1983	Limerick United	1	(0)
Total		332	(61)
International career
1969–1976	Republic of Ireland	26	(2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gerard Anthony Francis "Terry" Conroy (born 2 October 1946) is an Irish former professional footballer, who spent most of his career with Stoke City.

Career

Stoke City

Conroy was born in Dublin and began his career with Home Farm, where he won four Irish youth caps. He moved to Northern Irish club Glentoran where he believed that he would have a better chance of being spotted by an English club. Sure enough, in a friendly match against Stoke City, he impressed manager Tony Waddington. Conroy initially turned down Stoke's offer as he wanted to finish his printer's apprenticeship but after completing it he moved across the Irish Sea in March 1967 for a fee of £10,000. He made an instant impact at the Victoria Ground by scoring the winning goal in a 3–2 victory over Leicester City on his debut in 1967–68. In 1968–69 he won a regular place in the side and finished as second top-scorer with nine. His performances for Stoke soon attracted the attentions of some heavy tackles from opposing defenders, which injured him for long spells of his Stoke career. As a result, he played 30 or more games in only three of his twelve seasons at Stoke. He was second top-scorer again in 1970–71 with 14 and in 1971–72 he scored the winning goal against West Ham United in the semi-final of the League Cup.

Conroy then scored the first of Stoke's two goals which defeated Chelsea 2–1 in the final. He suffered an injury in 1973–74 and made return in 1974–75 as he scored ten goals in 16 First Division matches as Stoke missed out on the chance to win their first title. He remained with Stoke until he was released by Alan Durban after making 333 appearances for the "Potters" scoring 67 goals in 12 years at the Victoria Ground.

After Stoke

Capped by the Republic of Ireland 26 times, he left the Victoria Ground for the Hong Kong club Bulova on a free transfer in 1979. He returned to England in 1980 to play for Crewe Alexandra, scoring five goals in 37 League appearances. He signed for Waterford United in September 1981. After a spell out of the game he signed for Limerick in November 1982.

Post retirement

After doing PA work at the Britannia Stadium, he made his exit from Stoke during the half time of the West Bromwich Albion match on 22 November 2008 to loud applause. He was appointed welfare officer for the Football Association of Ireland on 28 November. January 2009, he pledged continuing support as patron of charity funds at Staffordshire based Castle Comfort Stairlifts as well as being on the voting panel of the group's Carer of the Year award. He returned to Stoke as a matchday host in 2010. In March 2011 Conroy fell seriously ill with a suspected vascular aneurism. He has successfully recovered from the illness, and continues to volunteer working with Stoke City to highlight the condition.

Style of play

Conroy was a firm fan favourite at Victoria Ground with his ability create something out of nothing as well as his distinctive appearance of pale skin and bright ginger hair and sideburns.

"This red-haired ghost impressed me at Anfield where he was bundled over the touchline by a massive Liverpool defender. Terry got up took the return pass and after battling down the wing he flicked the ball past Tommy Lawrence with the outside of his boot. That is flair"

— Daily Express journalist Derek Potter.

Career statistics

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Stoke City	1967–68	First Division	9	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	11	1
	1968–69	First Division	31	7	4	2	1	0	0	0	36	9
	1969–70	First Division	31	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	33	2
	1970–71	First Division	34	11	9	2	2	1	2	0	47	14
	1971–72	First Division	27	4	6	4	11	3	2	0	46	11
	1972–73	First Division	33	4	1	0	3	0	2	1	39	5
	1973–74	First Division	9	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	11	1
	1974–75	First Division	16	10	1	0	2	3	2	0	21	13
	1975–76	First Division	16	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	19	4
	1976–77	First Division	36	5	0	0	2	1	0	0	38	6
	1977–78	Second Division	22	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	23	1
	1978–79	Second Division	7	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	9	0
	Total		271	49	25	8	26	8	11	2	333	67
Crewe Alexandra	1979–80	Fourth Division	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
	1980–81	Fourth Division	30	4	1	0	1	2	0	0	32	6
	Total		37	5	1	0	1	2	0	0	39	7
Career Total			308	54	26	8	27	10	11	2	372	74

A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the UEFA Cup, Texaco Cup, Watney Cup, Anglo-Italian Cup and Anglo-Scottish Cup.

Honours

Glentoran

• IFA Premiership champions: 1966–67
• Irish Cup winner: 1965–66
• Gold Cup winner: 1965–66

Stoke City

• League Cup winner: 1972
• Watney Cup winner: 1973–74

External links

• Interview with Conroy following Stoke's FA Cup quarter final win in March 2011 at bbc.co.uk
• Interview with Conroy on his footballing career at www.bbc.co.uk/stoke