BYRON JOSEPH ANTHONY

Born: 20/09/1984, Cardiff

Position: Defender

Rovers League Début: 12/08/2006 v Grimsby Town

Debut Number: 754

Clubs represented: Cardiff City, Forest Green Rovers (loan), Bristol Rovers, Hereford United (loan), Barnet (trial), Burton Albion (trial), Newport County.

Managerial/Coaching Positions: Newport County (Academy coach), Bristol Rovers (Academy coach), Swansea City (U-18 coach), Bristol Rovers (Academy Head of Coaching).

Unable to make the League side at Cardiff, central defender Byron Anthony had appeared in two League Cup ties for the Bluebirds, scoring against MK Dons, and in four matches for Forest Green prior to his arrival at the Memorial Stadium.

He soon acquired the pseudonym ‘The Lord’ on account of his first-name being the surname of a Romantic poet.

An unused substitute at the Millennium Stadium in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final against Doncaster Rovers in 2007, he played at Wembley in May of that year when Rovers defeated Shrewsbury Town 3-1 to seal promotion to League One.

He scored his first goal for the club against Nottingham Forest in September 2007 and he also converted the successful spot kick as Rovers knocked Crystal Palace out of the League Cup on penalties.

He also scored twice in August 2009 as Rovers defeated a Liverpool XI 4-3 in a pre-season friendly. In December 2010 he conceded an own goal and then missed a penalty in the shootout of Rovers’ final game under Paul Trollope, but he continued to show sterling effort in Rovers’ ultimately unsuccessful bid to avoid relegation to League Two.

Hereford, despite Anthony’s goal against Bradford City, lost their League status in 2011/12, the tall Welshman playing against Torquay in their final game.

On his release from Edgar Street he played trial games for Barnet against Charlton Athletic and Burton Albion against Leeds United.

Three goals in 21 Conference games helped propel Newport County into the Conference play offs at the close of the 2012/13 campaign and he then set up Christian Jolley’s opening goal at Wembley on a heady May afternoon, as Newport defeated Wrexham 2-0 to return to the Football League after an absence of 25 years.

He appeared in County’s opening fixture back in the League but suffered a double fracture of the ankle in the Ambers’ League Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion three days later which effectively ended his playing career, all but one of his League games for County being at home.

Undeterred, he has successfully built a new career in the coaching side of the game and hopes to progress as far as he can in that area of the game.

Byron’s Rovers playing career saw him score seven goals in 163 league appearances.