A reliable and versatile midfielder, Tony Towers made his debut for Manchester City on April 19th 1969, only six days after his seventeenth birthday, in a 3-0 reverse at Southampton. Despite his tender years he forced his way into the side towards the end of 1969, his first goal coming as a substitute in a 1-0 European Cup Winners Cup defeat of Portugese opponents Academica Coimbra on March 18th. With only 6 league games under his belt co-managers Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison played him in the second leg of a 5-2 aggregate semi-final win against West German team Schalke 04, and then decided to pitch him into the final itself. The game in Vienna saw City run out 2-1 winners over Polish side Gornik Zabrze, goals from Young and a Lee penalty adding the trophy to the League Cup which they had won back in March with a 2-1 defeat of West Brom at Wembley. A memorable start then for the Manchester born youngster and the following season he would establish himself as a permanent fixture in the side, making 33 league appearances as the Blues started the season with an eight-game unbeaten run, only to fall away disappointingly and finish in 11th place. A 2-0 aggregate defeat by Chelsea in the semi-final of the Cup Winners Cup, allied to 2-1 losses to Arsenal in the FA Cup fifth round and Carlisle United in round two of the League Cup, meant a first season without silverware for four years. By October 1971 Allison had taken sole control of the managerial side but due to successive injuries Towers only managed 4 league games by the turn of the year. City continued to make progress in the league, going top on January 29th with a 5-2 victory over Wolves, but it was a different story in the cup competitions, with Middlesbrough and Bolton putting paid early on to their FA and League Cup campaigns. Tony then got a run in the side until the end of the season and made a further 15 appearances, scoring 3 goals as City finished in fourth place just a point behind League Champions Derby County. During the 1972/73 term Towers started to show the kind of consistency Allison believed he possessed, making 35 league appearances and scoring 5 goals, though the Blues could only finish 11th in the league once again whilst in the cups it was another disappointing season. By October 1973 ex-Norwich boss Ron Saunders had taken over after the departures of Allison and his successor John Hart. League form was disappointing and a 4-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup left the League Cup as City's only option of salvaging something from the season. They defeated Plymouth Argyle in the semi-finals to set up a meeting with Wolves at Wembley, but lost the final 2-1 with Colin Bell getting City's goal. This was to prove Tower's penultimate game for the Blues, his last outing coming a week later in a 1-0 away defeat at Leeds United. He had made a total of 157 league and cup appearances for City, scoring 12 goals, and was transferred to Sunderland in March 1974 as part of the deal that brought Denis Tueart and Mick Horswill to Maine Road. He went on to gain 3 England caps in his time on Wearside before being sold to Birmingham City in 1977. Tony left for a spell in the USA and Canada in 1981 but returned home three years later, having a short spell with Rochdale before finally retiring from the game in 1985. (David Redshaw)