By the end of the comic, they’ve scored a hattrick for England schoolboys v Brazil and made the headlines in the paper. I was there when he played his first game in '54, it was the Roy we know who had his first game in 1954. Eventually the Scorcher and Score was dropped from the title, with "Tiger and Speed" becoming the new name from 1st November 1980. At a guess, they retconned it so that the short haired Roy of the 50s and 60s is the father of the long haired 70s and 80s version who had his own comic, rather than being the same character. Playing for a Draw’ highlights the diversity of football art from illustration, comics and caricatures through to memorabilia and collectables.

Phoenix: I can only imagine that Rocky is just a pet/nickname his parents gave him as a child growing up, whereas his real name would also be Roy. Also the wonderment of the Scoop "computer" feeding in all the info on us and them and working out the passages of play and final score. Kevin Keegan was the first cover star of Match and supported the magazine with his column, Learn To Play The Keegan Way. I don’t even know if I am rooting for either team in this game but more against both teams in some way, thinking about who would be happy at the end and who I would find more annoying.The Chiefs winning the game would make a very irritating type of person very mad, and that thought brings me joy.

As an aside Roy of the Rovers final appearance was in the BBC's Match of Day Magazine in the May/June 1997 issue. This almost feels like we are heading for a game where the Chiefs go up early and the 49ers come back to win it, like a reverse 2019 SB. According to the British Library "Striker" launched on 10th of January 1970 and ran until 4th March 1972 when it was incorporated into "Inside Football".Will they get through the group’s stages, will they make the national final, the pinnacle for youth grassroots football players? The 49ers had to barely hang on to eek out a win against two teams they were supposed to be better than.