Roberts' double to rival brother

By Mark Currie, Daily Post

04/12/02

IT was a source of wry amusement in the Roberts household earlier this season that Wrexham defender Steve was out-scoring older brother Neil, a £400,000 striker at Second Division promotion hopefuls, Wigan Athletic.

Of course, it helped that the Racecourse Roberts was a regular starter for Denis Smith's Third Division side while Neil was often warming the subs' bench with the JJB Stadium outfit.

And it's only in recent weeks that Roberts senior has been back in favour with Latics' manager Paul Jewell, finding the net three times to overtake his brother's haul of two goals - a figure that doubles his career total.

It's not surprising then that Steve can remember in some detail each and every strike - an FA Cup goal against Kettering, two in the league against Chesterfield and York City and an LDV Vans Trophy effort against Huddersfield Town.

"Neil's back in front of me for this season but I'm quite happy with my tally," he said yesterday.

"Goals are something of a bonus for me."

That was the 22-year-old central defender's reference to the injury problems which have blighted his development over the past two seasons and also prevented him from collecting as many Wales under-21 caps as he might have anticipated.

Two years ago he made only six appearances when a promising start to the season was abruptly halted by a broken ankle at Oxford United and earlier this year it was a knee injury in February followed by an operation which curtailed a previously near-perfect record as the Dragons battled against relegation.

Little wonder then that Roberts takes nothing for granted, although he has missed only three games so far during the current campaign and seems to be a firm favourite with the Racecourse boss.

"From my point of view, I'm just happy to be playing regularly because there is a lot of competition for places at the back," he said. "I don't make a fuss; I just leave it to the gaffer."

With the halfway mark of the season approaching and Wrexham handily placed just off the promotion play-off places, Roberts said everyone in the camp was reasonably happy with the way things were going.

"We've played really well in the last couple of games and we were slightly unfortunate not to nick a goal against Hull on Saturday," he added. "But the league is still very tight with the exception of Hartlepool, who have pulled away a bit, so we need to put a bit of a run together.

"At the moment, we believe that every game we play is winnable and, although we maybe need to improve our home form, we set our standards against Hull and Bristol Rovers.

"On another day, we would have made more of the domination that we had against Hull and got the goal we needed. With the likes of Andy Morrell and Lee Trundle backed up by Lee Jones and Hector Sam, we go into every game feeling very confident that we'll score goals."