Dazzling the Villa fans, winding up ‘Psycho’ and why haircuts matter
➤ An exciting winger with a striking fashion sense, Tony Daley, like Jack Grealish now, was a hero of his boyhood club
It was the clicking noise made by the Villa Park seats as supporters stood up in the Trinity Road and old Witton Lane stands that gave the game away – Tony Daley had got the ball.
These days, it is Jack Grealish who gets Aston Villa fans out of their seats and has inspired a generation of copycat hairstyles, but 31 years ago it was Daley who was the local boy with a haircut to match his dazzling footwork.
Those who were present one Saturday in March 1990 will never forget Daley’s favourite goal of his career, against Luton Town, just as the maker of the banner that read “Luton Stop The Daley Delivery” will no doubt remember how their warning was ripped up by Villa’s speed king. It helped him win his first England cap against Poland at Wembley just over a year later – under his former Villa manager Graham Taylor – and book a place in the squad for the 1992 European Championship.
Injury has prevented Grealish being part of Gareth Southgate’s squad for tomorrow night’s visit of Poland, but the 25-year-old hopes to complete the path trodden by Daley, from Holte End fan to Holte
End hero, and representing his country at a major tournament.
Daley, now 53 and living in Sutton Coldfield, watched Villa become First Division champions from the Holte End in 1981, not always paying to get in, and still caught the bus from his boyhood home in the Newton area of Aston to games when he started playing for his boyhood club as a 17-year-old four years later.
“I used to get the number seven bus,” Daley says. “I remember getting it for a game against Liverpool, a night game. I’d got my boots with me and everything but, of course, nobody recognised me back then, absolutely not.
“The bus dropped me off just off the Trinity Road, so it was a two or three-minute walk to Villa Park. I played for about six or seven months while I was in Newtown before I bought a small place in Walmley in Sutton Coldfield.” Daley was part of two Villa teams who finished second in the English top flight, first in 1989-90 in the old First Division, then in the inaugural season of the Premier League in 1992-93. He also played in the 1994 League Cup final victory against Manchester United at Wembley.
It was his electric pace and goals – such as that stunning solo run against Luton – that made Daley such a popular player outside his native Birmingham and helped him win seven England caps, two of which came in the European Championship in Sweden 29 years ago. “I’ve got a few favourites, but the goal against Luton is probably my best,” says Daley, who clocked 12 seconds over 100 metres as a 15-year-old. “I don’t know if it was the goal of the season or not, but a mate of mine told me that he was watching Villa’s top 10 goals of the 1989-90 season and seven of them were mine! It was a really good year. I was flying.”
Daley relished the excitement from the stands whenever he
‘Grealish has his own style and he wears it well. If you take that away, then you lose what people are about’
received the ball and also enjoyed the attention his hairstyles brought, even though he was a more reserved character than Grealish, and would study for his accountancy course on the team bus during journeys to away games.
“When I got the ball at Villa Park, I just felt there was an expectation that I had to do something,” Daley says. “There was a brief silence and I could hear the seats going up and people getting out of their seats. I loved it.
“Apart from playing football, the way I expressed myself was the way I dressed and my haircuts. I was never a shrinking violet when it came to that. It made people happy and, first and foremost, it made me happy.”
Daley laughs at the thought of Grealish sitting in a hairdressing salon in Handsworth, but he remained a regular customer long after he had achieved regional and national notoriety.
“I always wanted to try different things out,” he says. “My hairdresser was a woman called Lurline in Handsworth, and she helped me come up with all the styles.
“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jack and he’s a lovely guy. He’s got his own personality and style, and I think he wears it well. If you take that away, the way people dress or their haircuts or whatever, then you lose what they are about. I was never captain like Jack, but being a local lad, I know exactly what it means to him to be playing for Villa.”
His speed and hairstyles made Daley an obvious target for fullbacks, who were often given a free hit on him at the start of games, while the mud-bath pitches were just as hard to navigate as avoiding the wild lunges.
“There were the likes of Julian Dicks and Stuart Pearce [‘Psycho’], and you knew what you were getting from them,” Daley says. “It was literally the first tackle they could take you out, chest high, pretty much do what they wanted and the ref would go, ‘That’s your first one’. So, you knew what was coming.
“There was a lot of ‘Next time I’m going to f------ take you out’, but that never bothered me. I was never one for giving a load back; I’d just usually giggle at them and it would wind them up. It never worried me and you just got up if you did get kicked, and tried to run them again.
“I relished playing against the hard men. It was players like Earl
Barrett and Denis Irwin, who were quick and clever, who I found much more difficult. I was delighted when Earl joined Villa.”
Daley holds fond memories of his England debut against Poland, even if it is scarcely believable that it will have been 30 years ago in November.
“I was on the bench for 70 minutes,” Daley says. “We went 1-0 down and I remember getting the first shout from Graham Taylor to go and warm up. I can still feel the butterflies now, good butterflies.
“It wasn’t a friendly, it was to qualify for the European Championship, 1-0 down, you need to get out there and make a difference. I went on and 10 minutes later Gary Lineker got the equaliser with a volley. That was a great moment to be part of.
“The two big things were to play for the team I supported as a kid and, of course, to represent my country. So, for me, it was an absolute dream come true.”
Following nine years as a firstteam player at Villa, during which Tottenham Hotspur and Udinese looked into signing him, Daley moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers and then Watford, but injuries started to catch up with him and he retired in 2002 after short spells at Walsall and Forest Green Rovers.
After gaining a sports science degree, Daley was a fitness and conditioning coach at Sheffield United before becoming head of sports science at Wolves, where he remained for 10 years. He now runs his own professional health and fitness business, named 7D.
“I got into fitness and the science behind it when I was injured, and it really helped me mentally when all I wanted to be doing was playing football,” Daley says. “I’ve got as much enthusiasm for what I’m doing now as I did as a footballer, and this second part of my life is just as exciting and exhilarating as the first part was.”
Those who regularly stood up in their seats at Villa Park to see Daley flying down the wing will testify that the first part of his life was a pretty exhilarating watch.