Town Legends - John Trollope

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I don't know how many of you have been bothering to vote in the Adver Town Legends jobby, I didn't bother voting myself in the best goalkeeper one because I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Fraser would win it - which of course he did, rightly so in my opinion.

I just wanted to urge people to vote for John Trollope because it is apparently very close between him and Paul Bodin. Now do not get me wrong. Bodin was a fantastic servant to the club and it could even be argued that without him we would never have gotten into the Premier League. Just off the top of my head, I can think of 1-0 wins vs Wolves, Peterborough, Luton and Sunderland where Zippy got the winning goal, not to mention a vital equalizer against Newcastle in a game we went on to win. Then of course of course, there was THAT penalty at Wembley.

So there is a strong argument for Zippy and normally he would be a dead cert for the Legends team. HOWEVER, it would be completely wrong to ignore Wroughton born John Trollope. For the younger ones amongst us, this is a man who played 770 times for the Town in a 20 year playing career which at one point included 368 CONSECUTIVE appearences between 1962 and 1968. As if that was not enough, he has also served as Youth Team Manager, Assistant Manager and Manager and was quite righly awarded an MBE for services to the game. In short, they do not make them like that any more.

As I said, I have the utmost respect for Zippy and loved watching him as a player but I just think that at times like this, the older players tend to get overlooked just because there are others who are fresher in the memory. Trollope has not been completely overlooked because it looks as if a lot of people have voted for him. But I thought this would be a good time just to remind people what he actually did for our club and I would urge those of you who have not voted to vote for JT, a TRUE Town legend in an era when the word is horribly over used.

[Peter Venkman]

Bodin was good but Trollope a class above, is still Mr Swindon Town FC IMO.

[Red Frog]

I bet lots of people like me - who only ever watched Trollope a couple of times at the end of his career - had forgotten he played left-back, and so voted for Zippy. I thought JT wore number 2 = RB. The Adver should really trail each month's vote with a few of the prominent players in each position to give us a chance to review the options. Can I transfer my vote?

[Crozzer]

Trollope is the number one.  The opening credits of MotD for a long time used to show John scything into Billy Bremner and turning him upside down.  He was one of the best at his craft in the entire Football League.

One Tuesday night Tranmere Rovers arrive, a young player called Steve Coppell is playing on the right side of midfield.  From the kick-off Trollope perfectly times a slide tackle that takes John, Steve and the ball off the grass and onto the running track in front of the old Shrivenham Road stand.  Although this was later in John's career, Coppell was completely snuffed out for the entire evening.  I don't think that Coppell ever had a tougher night even in an England shirt.   

[Dazzza]

Done. 

[Nemo]

Cast my vote for Trollope, and I'd second the posted who said that Adver should run down the candidates before the vote begins.

[DV]

I voted for Casal.

[Peter Venkman]

I voted for Casal.

You are right, I have wasted my vote on JT!

[Dozno9]

Can I just ask, not seeing Trollope play. Was he actually better than Bodin or will he win it because of his status within STFC, this is a left back place and not overall good guy.

Just want to find out from those who saw both play.

[Peter Venkman]

IMO Trollope was a much better defender and positionally great, Bodin was excellent going forwards and a great penalty taker, but as a defender Trollope was definatly superior, even though I only saw around 20 games with Trollope but I did see almost ever game played by Bodin.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I bet lots of people like me - who only ever watched Trollope a couple of times at the end of his career - had forgotten he played left-back, and so voted for Zippy. I thought JT wore number 2 = RB. The Adver should really trail each month's vote with a few of the prominent players in each position to give us a chance to review the options. Can I transfer my vote?

I bet lots of people like me - who only ever watched Trollope a couple of times at the end of his career - had forgotten he played left-back, and so voted for Zippy. I thought JT wore number 2 = RB. The Adver should really trail each month's vote with a few of the prominent players in each position to give us a chance to review the options. Can I transfer my vote?

That's the problem. As a result, you end up getting a 'Best XI from the last 15 years' rather than best ever.

I should have posted a link earlier, here we go, get voting peeps:

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/stfclegends/

[Crozzer]

IMO Trollope was a much better defender and positionally great, Bodin was excellent going forwards and a great penalty taker, but as a defender Trollope was definatly superior, even though I only saw around 20 games with Trollope but I did see almost ever game played by Bodin.

I think you gave a fair assessment. Trollope was an old-fashioned left back, who perfected the overlap with Don Rogers.  He was an excellent crosser of the ball.  He played in a much tougher era where a slide tackle into the back wasn't necessarily a foul.  Rogers was not good at defensive duties.  Rogers would not have had the impact he had without a first class full back working with him.  They complimented each other perfectly.  Trollope was uncompromising and hard as nails on the field.  In the 70's, if you wanted a coaching course on how to play full back, you only had to watch John Trollope.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I think it's fair to say that if you play 770 games, you've doing something right.

[Crozzer]

I think it's fair to say that if you play 770 games, you've doing something right.

He retired too early.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

He retired too early.

Interesting