Generally regarded as one of the best goalkeepers of the eighties and
nineties, Tony Coton's name is normally
one to crop up in a list of the
best players never to have gained a full England cap. Born in Tamworth,
Staffordshire, he had spent the first part of his career at Birmingham
City, where he had saved a penalty
in the very first minute of his debut
against Sunderland in 1980, before moving on to Graham Taylor's
Watford
in 1984. In his early days he was perhaps unfortunate to have had Peter
Shilton in front of him in
the national team, and latterly would be
behind the likes of Chris Woods and Nigel Martyn in the pecking order.
He was 29-years old when Manchester City manager Howard Kendall paid
Watford a fee of around £1 million
for him in the summer of 1990, making
his first appearance on the opening day of the 1990/91 campaign in
a
3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur. Manager Kendall then resigned in
November to take charge at his old club
Everton, but despite the team
being in the top-six under player-manager Peter Reid for most of the
season,
Coton initially had a job to win over the supporters as he had
taken over from the popular Andy Dibble. Their
doubts were dispelled,
however, when he produced a string of top-class displays, making some
crucial saves
and showing great ability in one-on-one situations as a
creditable fifth place finish in the league was achieved.
The following two years would see Tony firmly establish himself as
one of the Premiership's top keepers and put
himself into the England
reckoning, being rewarded with a 'B' team cap when he came on as a
half-time substitute
in a game against France at Loftus Road in February
1992. Three months later he was also named as his club's
Player of the
Year, making 37 league appearances with the team once again finishing in
fifth spot in the table.
With Tony in the best form of his career it
seemed inevitable he would be summoned into the full squad during
the
1992/93 season, but the call never arrived in spite of him keeping clean
sheets in 10 of his 40 games as the
team finished in ninth place in the
table.
Amid growing unrest off the pitch manager Reid was sacked at the end
of August 1993 to be replaced by Brian Horton
, but Coton continued to
perform consistently between the sticks as the team recovered from a
dismal start to slowly
claw their way back up the table. With early
exits in both cup competitions and only nine wins all season an eventual
sixteenth place finish was a disappointing effort, but Tony had been
instrumental in keeping the club just above the
relegation zone and he
was rewarded with the Player of the Year trophy for the second time in
three seasons.
The 1994/95 season would prove to be Tony's last with club as he
picked up a shoulder injury in early October which
would keep him out
until the end of January the following year. He returned for a fourth
round FA Cup defeat of
Aston Villa (1-0), but the Blues had been in
freefall in the league as they had not won a game since early December.
Results then improved sufficiently over the next two months to stave off
the threat of relegation, with Coton getting
a run of fourteen
consecutive games, but he suffered a badly torn thigh muscle in a
goalless draw with Newcastle United
at Maine Road on April 29th, a game
which would be his last for the club. In the event it was only the
quick-thinking
of doctors in a Bolton hospital that averted a
potentially leg-threatening blood clot from turning into something
much
more serious.
Manager Horton was replaced before the start of the following season
by Alan Ball, who immediately signed
ex-West German international Eike
Immel from VfB Stuttgart. With rumours of Coton and Ball having had a
falling out and
the club needing to reduce the wage bill he was
eventually allowed to leave in January 1996, when he moved across town
and joined Manchester United for £500, 000 as cover for Peter
Schmeichel. He had played a total of 194 league and cup
games for City
(including 1 as a substitute), and although fans were not happy with the
manner of his departure
(and the destination) he remains one of the
most popular players to have ever pulled on the sky-blue shirt.
After never playing a first-team game at Old Trafford he moved on to
Sunderland six months later for a fee of £600,000,
but after only ten
games he broke his leg in five places in a collision with Southampton's
Egil Ostenstad, and the injury
marked the end of his playing career at
the age of 35. After recovery he returned to Manchester United to take
up the
role of goalkeeping coach, a position from which he was forced to
step down in June 2008 due to ongoing knee problems.
(David Redshaw)
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