Dunfermline Athletic

Roy Barry

Friday, 22nd Aug 2014

Roy Barry says that he just loves it at East End Park. Now officially a legend after having his photograph hung in the undercroft,

The 1968 Scottish Cup winning captain told the website:-

"It is just a privilege to come back to the ground every now and again. Especially when you look out on the pitch, it is immaculate and the ground staff here do a great job. How could you have a bad game here, it looks so good but you do have a bad game sometimes. It looks so lovely that you just want to get your boots out and go out there!"

Roy was chuffed to see the photographs that have been mounted describing them as "just spectacular",

"To see photographs of some of those older guys, even older than myself - Harry Melrose, he looks in great form, Jock Stein was a burly big guy but how fit he looks. They are great pictures. Bert Paton looks like a natural athlete only I think he must have dyed his hair.

"The former players meet up before games in Legends and have a chat and since Charlie D`s has opened we go in there and mingle. It is nice to see people although the folk that generally come up and speak to us are usually granddads. It is that age thing, they introduce us to their grandchildren but it is good fun."

Roy was absent for a while after leaving Dunfermline to join Malcolm Allison`s Coventry City and he lived and worked in London for almost thirty years before returning to Scotland. He feels it had been a good return and he really embraces it now as fans show their appreciation for his three successful years at Dunfermline.

"There is always a favourite game that fans want to talk to me about. The European time was incredible, massive for the club with 20,000 inside East End Park. You couldn`t get moving for all those old cars round the track. It was great fun."

Asked which game he enjoyed most, Roy singled out the European Cup Winners Cup match against Olympiakos when Dunfermline won 4-0 at home.

"We went to Athens and I think they scored three in twenty minutes, we had a player sent off but we managed to hold out for the rest of the game. It was backs to the wall I always remember the sportswriter of the Scotsman saying that it was `the finest defensive performance` that he had seen in Europe in his entire life. What an amazing thing to say. Looking back all these years, that game was just awesome even better than going down to West Brom and getting a result there.

"The Greeks had licence to kick, head but and everything. The referee was so weak he just let it go on and to our credit, only to get one man sent off was to our credit, it was a miracle! None of us really retaliated."

It was Barry Mitchell who was sent off with fourteen minutes to go and although Roy described it as a tackle that Daily Record`s Alex Cameron reported it as a punch at the time.

The 1968 Cup Final was big for Roy but he felt the match in Athens was such a different kind of game:-

"That one over there, we were intimidated to such an extent that to come off, win through and be proud of yourself because of what you had achieved and not just the result without going down to their level, that`s was the greatest game."


- - Listen to Roy tells this story



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This website served as the official Dunfermline Athletic website from season 2006-2007 until season 2022-2023.

Stories, match reports and interviews for these seasons can still be accessed here.

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