TO many Daggers fans Tony Roberts is priceless, but unfortunately the price tag attached to the Welsh stopper is all too real and it's a hefty one at that.

Ever since the Daggers almost won promotion last year, the story of Roberts' insurance payout has been well known among the fans. An injury sustained while playing for QPR saw Roberts take an insurance pay out which meant he had to give up playing professional football. So if Dagenham gain promotion to Division Three, the question of whether Roberts will be joining them is one that is yet to be answered.

It is a double blow of course when the keeper in question has only just scooped every player of the year award going at the club.

Roberts said: "It's a great honour to be voted as the player of the year, especially when it's by the fans who come week in, week out. And to win the club award as well means I must have been doing something right all season.

"I can only wait until the end of the season to see what happens with regards to paying back the insurance money. It would be nice to have the problem of sorting it out as that would mean we've gained promotion.

"If it does come to that then I'll have to sit down and have a chat with the club and the insurance people to see what needs to be done. It wouldn't be nice to win four player of the year awards and then not go up with the club."

This season has certainly been a memorable one for Roberts, who once again took centre stage in the FA Cup: "I've had a good year. We've got to the play-offs and winning player of the round in the third round of the FA Cup was a high point for me, even though it was cruel the way we went out.

"Although a lot of people think that my best game was that against Norwich, I personally feel that our 1-0 win against Hereford at home was my best performance. I made some important saves in that game, which shut them out, and we went on to win.

"I fancy our chances against Morecambe because, although we lost the game we played up there 2-1, we created a lot of chances against them. They're also a team who like to play football and that's when we can get in round the back and punish them."

May 1, 2003 10:30