Under-the-Radar 007 - Jack Roberts

If you Google ‘Jack Roberts Spalding’ you’ll see that the first article which comes up is an official announcement by the club made this summer, that the 21-year-old winger has just signed a 3 year contract, so ‘hands off all you interested parties… Unless it’s for the right price’.

Part-time Spalding United know what they are doing. They have a highly talented young forward who last season took the Southern League Premier Central Division by storm and helped his side gain promotion to the National League North, the highest run on the football ladder that the Tulips have ever been at.

Roberts joined Lincolnshire outfit Spalding in 2025, signing from Bishop’s Stortford Town who he scored 8 goals in 23 games with including a hat-trick against the Tulips as a teenager, three goals in front of the home support at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field in November 2024 during a 3-1 away win doing more than enough to persuade the Spalding fans, staff, and owners, seven months later to go get their man.

Ever-since, the player has achieved amazing feats in blue and yellow, scoring 27 league goals and registering an impressive number of direct contributions last season, his 90th minute goal in the playoff final verses Real Bedford taking the game to extra-time, in which the South Lincolnshire outfit would eventually win.

Having played at his local club Erith Town from under tens upwards, as a spritely teen, in August 2021, Roberts signed for Glasgow Rangers and featured in the Scottish giants academy for two years before moving back south to play at Braintree Town, a move on loan to Cheshunt would then follow ahead of signing for Bishop’s, but at Spalding United, under Jimmy Dean, his career has taken lift off to an extra level, with some seriously stunning performances that has turned heads of those even several leagues above.

Quick Stats:

• DOB: 21 January 2005 (London)

• Height: 5ft10in (1.77m)

• Foot: R

• Position: Left or Right Winger

• Club: Spalding United (since 2025)

• Previous: Rangers (2021-24), Braintree Town (2024), Cheshunt (2024) loan, Bishop’s Stortford Town (2024-25)

Attributes…

Firstly Roberts is blessed with pace but also plays with energy and positivity, is a highly confident individual and when he gets the ball his first intention is to try and make something happen.

A powerful right foot, he’s at his best when set free with the ball and has space in front of him, as a left winger he can cut back in on his favoured right foot to shoot or thread eloquent balls into team-mates pathways, if on the right side he’ll look to drive at full backs and get crosses in from the by-line.

Technically, he’s very good but it’s his tenacity which makes him such a visually effective player, willing to get back and graft and help out in defence, but it’s at the other end of the pitch where he comes alive, if left one-v-one expect fireworks when running at opponents full throttle.

How Does He Fit In?

Spalding United under Jimmy Dean can certainly play with the ball, but in some circumstances, they are even better without it. A traditional 4-3-3, Roberts is more often than not used as a wide left player but with license to roam and do as he likes, often appearing centrally (in the hole) or even on the right hand side, a space usually operated by the leggy and awkwardly talented Yusifu Ceesay.

The Tulips will aim to suck you in with defensive resilience, a back four is sturdy and uncomplicated, held together by the hugely experienced ex-Football League veteran Liam Moore at centre half, in midfield a three are workmanlike and industrious, their aim to quickly find the likes of Roberts, Ceesay, and big Bart Cybulski, a 6ft5in striker who scored over 20 goals last season and who also links play very well indeed.

If ever Roberts or Ceesay are left isolated in attacking opposition defenders, that is Spalding sucking you in and doing exactly what they wanted to do, the key is to get their star assets on the ball in the final third, as their star assets are the difference makers in the team.

Form & Future…

Having moved up a level together, things will be much tougher for Jack Roberts and Spalding United in the National League North this season but should he show the sort of form that we regularly seen in the Southern League last year than no doubt he’ll be soon on to bigger and better things than stair six of the football pyramid.

Roberts has so far played in all three of Spalding’s matches this season, in an opening day 2-0 win at Radcliffe, before a 1-0 home defeat against Oxford City on Saturday gone, on Tuesday night he appeared in a scoreless draw with Macclesfield, and under my watch, against a team tipped to be up there for the title, was one of the best players on show.

He’s a talented boy, one who will continue to contribute towards goals, a player who will always put fright into defenders thanks to the speed, skill, stamina and end-product in abundance which he has. Whether Jack Roberts will still be a Spalding United player in 2029 is a question that will only be answered by form, should he continue to impress and deliver like he’s done, there’s no question by then, or even long before, he certainly won’t be at this level that long.

theHEADscout.

I’m a sports DATA Analyst and PFSA associate scout with level two qualifications in talent identification and level one certificates in technical scouting & opposition analysis.