Connor Rollinson, one half of Barnsley’s most popular Non League footballing brothers, can certainly say his journey has been memorable.
Since a combination of Nick Handley, Darren Smith and Simon Houghton unleashed a then-16-year-old Rollinson on an unsuspecting Non League world back in 2009, he has worn the colours of Pontefract Collieries, Kinsley Boys, Glasshoughton Welfare and his current club Worsbrough Bridge.
Memorable is putting it mildly. Colourful is probably a better description. Brother and part-time goalkeeper Calan is quite a character and likes to make his voice heard as Josh Wright and others will testify, but the elder Rollinson certainly knows how to leave his mark on managers and players. He’s even had the audacity to challenge Leeds United legend Brendan Ormsby.
Rollinson has always been a vocal presence in the dressing room. Whether that’s through exotic dancing, singing naked in the shower or by pushing Darren Holmes to breaking point by crossing a line that should never be crossed by doing what the Glasshoughton joint boss describes as a personal “pet hate”.
On-the-field, he’s a connoisseur of 30-yard worldie’s and he’s played alongside illustrious Non League footballers from Liam Ormsby to Showman Ryan Poskitt to Joe Thornton to Jack Wilson.
He’s got two claims to fame. One is that he’s been on a Table Tennis coaching course with former Newcastle United midfielder Des Hamilton. The other is that he has received world class beauty treatment from Del Pollock, Jimmy Williams and Andy Seed as their first client.
Away from Non League, he is a successful coach and through NLY Community Sport he has jointly-created five Disability Football teams across Yorkshire and coached several players who have played for Mencap GB in Geneva.
This is Connor Rollinson’s Non League Journey:
“Nick (Handley) was my PE teacher at High School and I don’t want to make his head bigger than what it might be, but when I was in Year 7 I saw him wearing these various different Non League tracksuits and I thought I wouldn’t mind being like him. So I set my sights on becoming a PE teacher and playing football at the standard that Nick did. When I left Year 11 at 16 he asked me to go down to Pontefract Collieries.
“It was weird going into the dressing room because Nick had obviously been my teacher three months earlier. The first game I remember playing for Pontefract was a friendly against Nostell, a club I’ve always admired and one I now have connections with. I remember Paul Staniforth scoring a free kick. It was obviously the first game I played with Nick and there was a man running off him and I shouted ‘sir, sir, sir, there’s a man’. He turned round and said ‘don’t call me f***ing sir, it’s Nick’. I found it hard saying Nick and then you’re in the changing room with your former teacher and you’re seeing the banter that goes off. I soon got used it.
“Micky Long, Rian Sykes, Carl Fothergill, Mark Lafferty were in the changing room at the beginning. Mark Lafferty always had a knack for having a s**t five minutes before a game. Simon Houghton would be rallying us and he’ll be like ‘where’s Laffs’ and he’d be on the toilet. I can’t go into specifics with (Houghton’s assistant) Daz (Smith) because he’s a lunatic! Daz was actually the person who gave me my first chance at Ponte as I had been on the bench for x amount of time. Simon wasn’t there one week and Daz was managing and I came on. That’s when I got in with Simon. But Daz is a funny guy and he kept everyone together.”
Rian Sykes
“Rian Sykes, I’ve got some unbelievable stories about him and you can’t print nearly all of them. I was only 16 so I didn’t drive. He lived in the same village as me so I used to go with him in his car to Pontefract. I was also going to house parties with him on a night. I remember him bagging up his boxers after a game and I was like ‘what are you doing’? He had a secret admirer who used to buy his match-worn boxers for x amount of money. The request from this person was very clear that they had to have been worn. He used to drop them off at his secret admirer’s house on the way home.”
Simon Houghton
“I like Simon, he gave me my first chance and I’ve been at other clubs with him. What I liked about him was that he told you what you were good at and what they needed to do. His man-management was excellent because he’d always take the time to ring you after matches to let you know his thoughts. Certainly on the man-management front, he’s the best manager I’ve had.”
Playing Regularly for Ponte
“I started about 16 or games in my first season, but in the following season Simon brought some big-hitters in so I didn’t play as much. I just stopped playing and I only played for my College team. Brendan (Ormsby) got the manager’s job and I started training again after Nick asked me to come back. Brendan had a bad start to his first full season and I think it wasn’t until October until I got my first start. I remember texting him after they got battered 4-0 or something like that. I put ‘am I going to get a f***ing chance or what’? He asked to see me and I went down and he said ‘you don’t beat around the bush do you’? I said ‘no’ and he said ‘well, we’ll give you a go then’. I played a lot after that. Playing Albion Sports away is one game I remember. We were losing and I got put on the right wing because I was quick and I set up a couple of goals after getting played through. I don’t really remember stand-out games, but I played with some good lads when Brendan was the manager like Liam (Ormsby), Paul Haigh, Gaz Hunter, The Showman. Ryan (Poskitt) was there when I was 16, but he kept flitting between Ponte and Worsbrough. He was a Showman in those days, but in a different way. He didn’t score as many, but he was a lot quicker and his crossing was second to none.”
‘Comedy Connor’
“The ‘Comedy Connor’ nickname came from a lot of things I was doing in the changing room. Duncan Bray made the nickname up, it was him who said it. I was doing various things like coming into changing room with my trousers up to my nipples and putting my shoes on the wrong feet. I also used to do a dance with no clothes on in the changing room to the dance song off The Inbetweeners film. There’s no video evidence of that though. I used to get up to all sorts outside of football, Liam has already said that. I used to go on lads’ holidays and come back with certain tattoos, things like that.”
Leaving Colls for Kinsley Boys (Early 2013)
“Nick and Duncan got put in charge of Pontefract after Brendan left. There was talk of money shortages so Duncan asked to see me at his house. He said ‘there’s nothing for you to worry about, we still value you’. All the spiel. I had been playing all season at right-back and whilst I don’t think I had been outstanding, I felt I had done enough not to be dropped. I turned up the following Saturday for the game at Hemsworth and Nick said ‘you’re on the bench today’. I spat my dummy out and I asked Nick ‘what was happening’? He rang Rousey (Craig Rouse) who I knew from my early Ponte days. Rousey was managing Kinsley and Nick told me to go there and play there for a month or two and start enjoying it again. I was going out on a Friday night back then and not taking it totally seriously. One of the last games for Ponte was against Athersley Rec at home and I went out the night before. I was horrendous, but I can’t say I haven’t been out the night before a game since!”
First Impressions of Craig Rouse
“So they had got rid of me at Ponte and I remember sitting in the Kinsley dressing room. I didn’t really know anyone. Rousey sat down and I thought he was winking at me. So I winked back and he went ‘who the f*** are you winking at’?”
Kinsley’s Unforgettable FA Vase Run (2013/14)
“We got to the first round of the FA Vase so we did really well. We beat Appleby Frodingham in the first round and then we went to AFC Darwen in the second qualifying round. Darwen were 3-0 up after 20 minutes and I was playing right-back and Rousey was at centre-back and the Darwen players were taking the p*ss saying it was going to be 6-0. We pulled it back to 3-3 and we scored in the last minute of injury-time to win it. We had made all our subs and two people playing at the end were injured. Liam Haller was injured and Ryan Jennings had gone upfront. The coach stopped outside this small corner shop on the way back and loads of the lads went in and ran with loads of crates of lager on their shoulders. They weren’t even paying for them! It was boom, boom, straight out. The man was coming out shouting as we drove off.”
Reunion with Simon Houghton
“We had a decent season under Rousey and I remember turning up for the following season and the grass hadn’t been cut all summer. This was the first game of the season and the grass must have been two feet high. Rousey left and went back to Ponte to play for them. I was going to leave, but he told me not to because he said Simon was going to be the next manager. Simon came back to Kinsley with a huge workforce. He cut all the grass, painted everywhere and the place looked totally different. He also brought Craig Wilkinson in. I got close to Craig and we got a good friendship going as we were going out a lot after games, even though I was 21 or 22 and he was in his mid-30s. He took me under his wing.
“It was an enjoyable for a while as we got some good results so we were near the top for a while. We had some decent Northern Counties East League players like Matty Roberts, Jack Owen, Liam Owen, me, Calan, Rian Sykes, Gaz Hunter, Andrew Joburns, Richard Watson. Things fizzled out though and the club actually folded.”
Gaz Hunter
“Gaz has been a good mate over the years. Obviously I’ve played with him at Ponte, Kinsley, Glasshoughton and Worsbrough. He’s done a lot for me, including rescue me after my car ended up in a ditch.”
First Stint with Worsbrough
“My first time with Worsbrough wasn’t very enjoyable. I had two or three years with Kinsley and I didn’t know where I’d go next, but I went and trained with Worsbrough at Kirk Balk School on the astroturf. Apart from Craig Goodyear, Andrew Broadbent, Christian Bark, Gaz Hunter, Alex Gillespie, it was all young lads – including a young Ollie Fearon.
“We had an easy start to the season and we beat Rossington Main 2-0, but it got worse and worse. Results were terrible and as once as the floodlights stopped working it was horrendous. We ended up at Grimethorpe and when we turned up there, there was a horse in the middle of the pitch. I’d seen enough by then.”
Houghton Lures Connor to Glasshoughton (December 2015)
“My last game for Worsbrough during that spell was actually against Glasshoughton. We beat them 2-1 at Grimethorpe. Simon then got the job at Glasshoughton and it was wrong what he did really, but there we go. He wanted to sign me, Gaz and Pozzy straightaway and Worsbrough weren’t allowing it. They were only willing to let one of us go. Simon said ‘tell them you’re not going to play again’ – basically he told us to manifest our own moves. Me and Gaz went to training and chucked our tracksuits back and told them we weren’t going to play for them again. We then went to Simon’s house in Cudworth to sign the forms in his kitchen.
“The first game was against Yorkshire Amateur when we drew 3-3. We had been winning 2-0, but we ended up just drawing after a 16-year-old Nathan Keightley scored in the last minute. I only stayed for the rest of the season, but it was enjoyable. Simon and (joint manager) Craig (Wilkinson) did a great job to stabilise Glasshoughton and we finished in mid-table.”
Connor gets a Much-Needed Makeover
“The first time I went out with the Glasshoughton lads the first time I was there was very memorable. We went somewhere like Sheffield and for some reason I ended up coming back to Castleford with Andy Seed, Jimmy Williams and Del Pollock. I went back to Seedy’s house and I fell asleep on the settee. When I got up in the morning and when I looked in the mirror I had no eyebrows. I was like ‘Seedy, what the f*** has happened’. Jimmy said it was Del and Del told me it was Seedy and Jimmy so I don’t know who did it? I didn’t really go berserk, but I had to get my mam to colour my eyebrows in for me. At work I was telling people before they asked. I kept saying ‘I’ve got no eyebrows, they’re pencilled in’.”
Back to Worsbrough (2016/17)
“Darren Holmes and Lee Vigars had taken over at Glasshoughton and they didn’t know me then so I never got asked to stay there. So I went back to Worsbrough. Ian Shirt was now manager and I knew him personally. Josh Wright was involved too, but I didn’t know before going back to Worsbrough.”
Connor’s Greatest Footballing Moment (September 2017)
“I’ve not scored many goals so any goal is special, but this was an incredible goal and the best one I have scored by a mile. We were 1-0 up at Selby Town and Mark Stuart had the ball and I was 30 yards out. Nobody believes me that it was 30 yards out. Non League Yorkshire said it was and that’s a trustworthy website. Mark Stuart laid it to me and he said ‘hit it’. I would have never had if he hadn’t said it. Once as I hit it I knew it was going in and it went straight into the top corner. I went crazy when celebrating it. That made it 2-0 and we ended up winning the game 2-1.”
Worsbrough Captain as Club Stays Up (End of 2016/17 season)
“We started the season alright under Ian, but we started to lose players and a few young lads came in. It wasn’t really working and Ian left and Josh took over. We played football the way it should be done at Worsbrough which is just hitting it into the channels. He got Ryan Pleasants and Jack Mawson upfront and playing like battering rams. He put Calan in midfield and he did what he does best which is running round and kicking people. He got Enos (Huly) that year and we won five out of nine games near the end of the season to stay up. Josh also made me captain in the latter half of the season and that’s one of my proudest moments. We finished the season on a high when we beat Teversal and we celebrated quite wildly. I even put a bin on my head.”
Calan Rollinson – Goalkeeper (March 2017)
“Calan playing in goal at Eccleshill, that’s a funny story. I still laugh my head off about it. Josh couldn’t get there until half-time and he asked me as captain and an injured player to tell the lads the team. Josh also spoke to the lads on loudspeaker before the game and he was shouting down the phone ‘you f***ing best do this…’ It is funny when you remember back. When Josh got there, Aiden (Tyas) handled it outside the box and got sent off. Calan was the tallest player on the field and you could see him looking away and Josh shouted ‘Calan, get in the net’. Me and Jack Mawson always laugh about it because the first bit of action he got was when a ball trickled into his 18-yard-box. He could have just picked it up, but he came running out and slid on the floor and got control of it He was laid on the floor for ages. The photo is so funny, especially with his headband in. The other funny thing is that they scored six goals past him.”
Disability Football
“I remember James (Grayson) texting to ask me (in May 2017) if I could help out coaching at Ponte for a couple of Saturdays with the Ponte Pirates Disability team. I thought ‘why not’, but I was a bit nervous to start with and I didn’t get too involved in the first session. After a couple of weeks James asked me if I wanted to do it permanently and things have moved on a lot since then. Things have got bigger and stronger since we set up NLY Community Sport. We’ve had a lottery funding and up until we had to stop in March, we had about 70 junior and adult players with disabilities and learning difficulties training with us. We’ve created a number of teams in Barnsley, Selby and Wakefield in addition to the original Ponte team. We’ve had massive success. We’ve had success stories with lads who have not played football before and they’ve ended up going to represent their country in Geneva. We’ve even had one player invited to the House of Commons. I’m really proud of what we have achieved.”
Table Tennis Coaching Course
“Me and James went on this Table Tennis coaching course (in September 2017) at the EIS in Sheffield. It was meant to be open to people without experience of playing Table Tennis and it ended up being me, James and Des Hamilton without no experience at all and 15 or 16 other people with serious experience. Des was the assistant Eccleshill that year and he was alright as he got on well with the tutor. Me and James stuck out like sore thumbs at the back of the room when they went round asking people about themselves and their experience of Table Tennis. Most were saying ten or 15 years experience and it came to our turn and we looked daft when we said we had absolutely no experience.
“The funniest part is when we went for lunch. We came back and we could hear balls being smashed about in the big Sports Hall. We looked in and everyone, bar us two and Des Hamilton, were in there playing Table Tennis at a very high speed. It was like a tournament. Some had even got changed to play! We went back into the classroom and people started coming back in absolutely worn-out. Typical James, he shouts at one of them who must have been in his 60s and who he had never spoken to before, ‘bloody hell, you look like you’re going to keel over’! The bloke didn’t know what to say! Honestly, for the next 20 minutes I couldn’t stop laughing. The course started again and we were just laughing on the back room and it was like going back to School as everyone was turning around.”
James Grayson
“He is very organised, but he has forgotten a trophy at a presentation night once and he once ordered one less tracksuit than we needed at a Junior Christmas Party! I once shaved his head to raise some money for the teams and that’s definitely the funniest thing we’ve done. He gets me to do all sorts. He once made me get pied to raise some money for one of the lads’ Geneva trip, even though I didn’t want to do it. I had to have a bath eight times that night to get rid of the smell! He once did a stand-up routine at a presentation night designed to stitch me up and I fell for it. You never know what’s coming with him. Up until this week I hadn’t seen him for three months because of what’s happening in the world and my first sight of him was lifting a camera tripod out of his car. My first thought was ‘what’s he going to get me doing now’?”
Leaving Worsbrough Again
“Josh had asked me to sign a month before this (July 2017) and he told me I’d still be the captain. The cracks started appearing at the first friendly at Dodworth. He played two teams and I played in the second half, but what annoyed me is that he chucked me a flag and said I had to be the linesman in the first half on the other side of the pitch!
“We went to Penistone for a friendly and he had brought in numerous new players and my name wasn’t even on the team-sheet which was on the wall. I told him it wasn’t and he said it was. I thought from then that he didn’t want me there. I played one more game which was at Huddersfield YMCA and then I decided to leave on the day of the Wombwell Main friendly which I’m sure a few people remember. I just didn’t feel it was right bringing in the people he did. He had got rid of a core part of the team which had kept the club at the end of the previous season. Josh knows that and he has said if he gets the chance to go back that he’d do it differently. Pozzy was on the phone around that time and he persuaded me to go back to Glasshoughton…and I had some do’s there as well!”
Handy-Looking Calan Charges like a Rutting Stag at Boxing Fan Josh Wright (September 2017)
“I wasn’t there then as I had joined Glasshoughton, but I’ve heard two versions of events of this. Worsbrough had lost to Swallownest a month into the season and Josh (Wright) apparently said ‘if anyone has owt to f***ing say then say it’. Everybody was silent and then Calan said ‘yeah, I f***ing have, why are you f***ing playing him when we’re losing’. Josh allegedly said ‘come on then’. One version I heard was that Calan charged at him like a rutting stag and Josh apparently swatted him away quite easily.”
Darren Holmes’ “F***ing Pet Hate”
“What Lee (Vigars) and Darren were doing at Glasshoughton was a rotation system regardless of how well you played. I must give them some credit because in the end it did work. But I was getting annoyed because I’d play two and then be on the bench two. I was on the bench for Armthorpe at home (September 2017) and we were losing 2-0 late on and all his subs had been used. Adam Walsh didn’t play much at the time and he was the other sub and we decided to go and get showered and changed as it was freezing.
“The full-time whistle went and the first thing Darren said when he came in was, ’do you know what f***ing pet hate is? Substitutes going in when the game hasn’t finished’. I said to him ‘is that all you’ve got to say, you’ve lost by god knows how many and you’ve not said anything to the lads who have played. We’ve not even played and you’re making it out like it is our fault’. He shouted back ‘don’t talk to me like that’. I thought he was going to kill me because he went berserk. Thankfully I was sat next to Adam Walsh which might have put Darren off. It was like an argument with my dad and I thought that was it at Glasshoughton. I didn’t think I’d play again for them.”
Mike Brearley Oozes Quality
“Mike had seen a few reports on Non League Yorkshire and seen a few players get a regular mention. Naming no names, but the Showman was one. I think Mike thought to himself ‘why does he not report on me, I’m going to have a word with him’! So we won at Nostell one night and he decided to get his name out there. Mike was driving me home and we left the same time as James and Mike literally chased him across the car park saying ‘give me a mention’, all that. The next morning, lo and behold, man of the match Mike Brearley who ‘oozes quality’. He was quite chuffed at first, but then the lads started taking the mick and he rang me about ten times at work. When I did answer he said ‘you need to tell him to take it off and is he taking the p*ss of what’? I said ‘no’ and then he said ‘are you sure’? I’m not sure if Mike was picked again for Glasshoughton after that game despite his man of the match appearance!”
Glasshoughton Charge into the Play-Offs
“I didn’t get into the Glasshoughton team until October. The first game I properly started was Thackley away in the County Cup, a few days after my mam (Lucille) had been diagnosed with Leukaemia. We lost on penalties and I remember going into the changing room because I started crying. Some of the lads didn’t know what had happened and I thought some of them thought I was crying because we had lost a penalty shootout. We started winning then and we won 5-4 at Rossington. We went on a right run and we only lost four more league games and that got us into the play-offs.”
Show Your Support For Luce
“Obviously that season, I played for Glasshoughton and Calan for Worsbrough so we decided when the clubs played each other for the second time that season, that we’d do something to raise money for Leukaemia UK and two other charities. It was meant to be played in February, but it got postponed and it was eventually played on a Monday night as the last league fixture of the season. We got t-shirts with ‘Showing Our Support for Luce’ on made and all the players wore them in the warm-up. We raised some money and there was a large crowd.
“It is a game I will remember forever. That was the last game that my Mam saw me and Calan play. She was really poorly so for her to stay the whole way through that game was brilliant. It was a good game. I had not played the game before and I was petrified that Darren and Lee wouldn’t play me. Anyway they played me and we won 2-0 to get into the play-offs and I thought I ran my socks off. I actually should have scored after seven minutes. The lads gave me man of the match in the dressing room. Whether that was a sentimental thing I don’t know. The photo of me, my Mam and Calan after the game means a lot to me and I’ve got that upstairs at home.”
Re-signing for Worsbrough
“My Mam passed away on the 7th August 2018 and (Worsbrough chairman) Mark Booth came to the funeral and he brought a wreath from the club. They couldn’t have done more. My original plan was actually not to play again. Lee (Vigars) kept in touch and Glasshoughton did want me back, but I decided go back playing at Worsbrough in the September as I wanted my dad to be able to watch both me and Calan. That season is actually when I enjoyed my football for the first time in a while. We finished seventh and we pulled off some great wins like the 5-1 win at home to Selby Town. Last season didn’t go so well, but there was some big wins and big losses.
“The club is far more stable than it was five years ago. Lee (Morris) has done a good job in terms of the players he has brought in and hopefully we can have a good season when we start again. We’ll be looking forward to Non League Yorkshire reporting on us, we always enjoy the site coming personally to do match reports.”
Worsbrough Conquer Newcastle (2019)
“All season we have been saving up to go to Newcastle through fine money for things like mucky boots. We went for the weekend. Moz was giving me stick all day because my daughter Harla had just been born. He was saying ‘you can’t booze, you need to be in bed for 10pm’. I knew I had to be in for at least 12 because the day after I knew I would be needed to help with Harla when I got home. I ended up getting in at five in the morning!
“At the start of the night Calan was doing these Sambuca shots. I was having one, he was having one, it was a race. I did about five and I was nearly sick. He must have done 12. He was off his face. We went into this bar which we had put a load of money behind the counter. We had our own private booth and I threw up all over Jack Waldron’s shoes and he was kicking it off to hide it so he didn’t get kicked out.
“It was red hot so I took off my blazer in the booth. All of a sudden I see Calan walking past and he had my blazer on and because he’s a lot bigger than me it was right short. I tapped him on his shoulder and he wouldn’t respond so I had to pull it off him. We had all these free drinks and Calan was in the queue all night for basically no reason. David Taylor got kicked out of the club because he was dancing on the bar. Lee Morris was then having to badger the security guard to let him back in and I think he successfully did. I had been with Rob Oldham, Billy Rhodes and Jack Mawson, Jack Wilson and we went back to the room we were sharing. Everybody was saying ‘where’s your Calan’? I wasn’t worried to start with, but then I was. I scanned the room and shouted ‘Calan, Calan’. I hear this ‘JD, JD’ – not the drink, he was saying Joe Dungworth’s name. Calan was on the bed and I rolled the covers back and he was there stark naked. It was a right good trip.”
Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament
“Myself and Calan have raised over £4000 for various causes in my Mam’s memory from various fundraising activities. Calan has been the main driving force. He started it because he shaved his hair off to start the fundraising off and he’s led from the front with the other things we’ve done. We raised over £1000 at the Worsbrough-Glasshoughton game and then another £2000 at the memorial tournament we held last year at Barnsley College. We had ten teams and it was a nice tribute. We were going to hold the second tournament last month, but obviously it got cancelled. Hopefully it is something we can hold next year to increase our total.”
If you have enjoyed this interview, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page.
There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams so when the green light to return is given, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and we have incurred losses which we cannot recover. We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. As each day goes on, a substantial number of our players become further isolated so we need to be ‘ready for action’ when restrictions are lifted.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.