Roy of the Rovers part. In the extreme, Roy would be the only player for Melchester. The game received mixed reactions; the Spectrum version received 7/10 from "Your Sinclair", but only 3/10 from "Sinclair User". A number of official Melchester Rovers Subbuteo teams were produced in the 1980s and 1990s. There was also an officially licensed board game in the 1980s, which saw players take on the role of Roy Race and manage the club. The Old Fashioned Football Shirt Company now makes officially licensed replica shirts. In 1990, "Roy Race" and footballer Gary Lineker released a single, "Europe United", described in the comic
Roy of the Rovers a striker he comes closer to fitting the "Roy of the Rovers" fantasy than anyone else lately admired by English crowds". Shearer was at that time the leading goal-scorer for "unfashionable" Blackburn Rovers F.C., who were on the verge of winning the Premiership title. Comparisons have been drawn between the fictional Roy Race and the captain of England's 1966 World Cup winning team, Bobby Moore, whose playing career spanned a similar time-scale to that of Roy's. Moore's death in 1993, just days after the last edition of the "Roy of the Rovers" comic was published, produced a "literature of tribute",