Two Ex-QPR Players Happy to be Still Playing

-
Daniel Barden/Wanstead and Woodford Guardian.Roberts keen to keep going
TONY Roberts may be gracing the twilight of his career, but the former Wales international says he has no intention of calling time on the game he loves just yet.
The 38-year-old keeper (pictured) has been holding back the clock with a string of solid performances for the Daggers this season. And he insists he is happy to keep pulling on the gloves for as long as he is wanted.
"I'll keep doing it until John (Still) says I'm not performing." he said. "I want to go on for as long as I can and I feel good in my body, enthusiasm and attitude.
"I'm getting myself though the training and the games, and I'm still enjoying it which is the main thing."
Roberts - who has won two international caps and played in the Premier League with QPR - has notched up almost 300 appearances for the Daggers in seven years following stints at QPR, Millwall and St Albans City.
He has shown his importance to the club in the past and it is proving to be no different this season, the veteran being a steady hand in a young side struggling to adapt to life in the Football League.
Roberts said: "A lot of the lads haven't played league football but I have played the game for 20 years so I try to offer as help as I can. When the players get excited I try to calm them down, when they need a lift then I give them a boost.
"This season is a learning curve for a lot of them, as it is for the club."
And the Daggers will need to learn fast if they are to overcome a poor spell of results that has seen them pick up just one point from the last six games.
While they remain in the FA Cup following Saturday's win at Hampton and continue to put in performances which are on the whole, good, Roberts feels the Daggers need to start stamping out the inconsistency that has crept into their play.
"One minute we look to have cracked it, then all of a sudden we're getting beat," he said. "We've been playing well in games for 60 or 70 minutes but then conceding sloppy goals and at this level the teams are capable of shutting up shop.
"Last year we were the most organised and fittest team in the Conference but 90 per cent of the teams in this league are the same as us. So it's important we concentrate better because one mistake will cost you."
The Daggers enterain Bradford at Victoria Park in a crunch league fixture on Saturday.
The two teams sit dangerously close to the relegation zone, with the Bantams just one position above and Roberts added: "We had a good result in the cup at Hampton at the weekend and we need to turn that into a good performance against Bradford.
"It's nice being in the cups but we need the points to get back on track in the league." Report

This is Bath - EX-PRO MEAKER IS IN HIGH SPIRITS AT BITTON
The Toolstation League is not normally a place to see former Premier League players in action, but ambitious Bitton can boast one of their own in hot-shot Michael Meaker.And, despite having played at the highest level domestically with his first club, Queens Park Rangers, in the early 1990s, the 36-year-old Meaker remains as hungry as ever to spearhead the club's multiple push for honours this season.
Before last night's Somerset Premier Cup home date with Yeovil Town, Bitton were still in the hunt for silverware in five separate competitions.
And that has convinced Meaker, enjoying something of an Indian summer himself after leaving the professional game six years ago, he made the right move when he dropped down two divisions to join as player-coach from Mangotsfield United last season.
He said: "We've got a great team spirit on and off the pitch, and that's so important.
"Since I've been in non-league football I've won two titles - with Mangotsfield and Hounslow - and the atmosphere in the bar after games at both clubs was brilliant.
"In my second spell at Mangotsfield it wasn't so good and Andy Black (manager) had been pestering me for ages to come to Bitton.
"The chairman, John Langdon, who deserves so much credit for the club's progress, came up with a great deal and it was one of the best moves I've made in non-league football."
Meaker's professional career began at Loftus Road in 1990 and he commanded a £550,000 transfer fee when Jimmy Quinn took him to Reading in 1995.
A free transfer switch to link up with Ian Holloway at Bristol Rovers followed and saw west Londoner Meaker put down his roots in the area before he moved into the semi-professional game with spells at Northwich, Henley, Southall, Mangotsfield and Hounslow following brief spells at Swindon and Plymouth in 2001.
A former Wales Under 21 international, Meaker spent his professional career playing on the right wing and was never a prolific marksman, but a switch to centre-forward in recent seasons has reaped dividends.
He said: "It's been an amazing run and I think I've scored over 200 goals in the last five years.
"I got (a club record) 44 goals at Hounslow one year and scored 38 for Southall in another.
"I've got 15 this season and 12 in the last nine games and it is going well for me personally.
"I'm settled in Bristol now and want to continue playing for Bitton. The club has looked after me.
"Clubs from a higher level have been sniffing around, but I want to stay.
"There are others in the team, like Jon McAlinden, Danny Hallett and Tom Warren, who could also play at a higher level, but they are happy where they are and a lot of that is down to the manager."
Away from the pitch, Meaker is busy running the No 1 Football Academy at venues in Bristol, including Next Generation in Westbury on Trym and Bitton's Recreation Ground.
It offers coaching for children aged five upwards, with one-to-one fitness training for youngsters and adults also available.
Meaker's academy has been recommended by West Ham striker Bobby Zamora and Norwich's Jamie Cureton, among others, and current players from both Bristol clubs often provide a helping hand on the coaching front.
He said: "I was a bit unlucky to drop out of the League when I did as I was offered a great contract by Swindon but then Jimmy Quinn left and it didn't work out.
"I could have joined Orient, but I was better off playing part-time and working outside the game.
"The academy is doing really well and running that keeps me fit as well.
"I also work in the football agent side of things, helping out Louise Fellows, and I've got players not just locally but from all over the place on my books.
"I speak to people like Jimmy Quinn all the time and have got a lot of good contacts in the game.
"That will help if I ever want to go into management myself, but I'm not looking at that at this moment in time.
"I'm still enjoying playing football, but I'm not only in it for enjoyment. I'm still playing at a good level and I want to win things.
"And I think I've got a good chance with this Bitton side."This is Bath