“Keep your left leg on the touchline as a left winger,” he says, remembering the advice from former manager Bert Head that stayed with him throughout his career. “The other thing he always said was: ‘Take him on.’
“Never once did he say: ‘You shouldn’t have done that, you should have passed the ball.’ It was always: ‘Take it on’. That is what I tried to do.
“I enjoyed every bit of time I had in football, and I played in good times. I knew where the goal was, I liked to go around goalkeepers. That was it really.”
It sounds oh so simple, but it leaves out one crucial ingredient: supreme talent. In a feature length interview with Palace TV, Rogers reflects on an extraordinary career that left an indelible impact on all those who watched him play in South London.