Becky reads your posts to Tony Kay

I have nothing to offer about Tony Kay, having never watched him. I only go off what my father and the wise elders say about him.

That he would have probably kept Harvey out of the team. That he would have been in the England 1966 World Cup winning team ahead of Bobby Moore.

It is more that fitting he will be at Goodison.

I concur, those greats shouldn't be led out at the end. There is too much risk. Before the match and it should be them walking the teams out to the siren and Z-Cars once all the supporters are in place.

if it delays kick off by 10 minutes, so be it. Southampton are relegated, we're going to finish 13th. The day is about remembering Goodison. And winning of course.

I was lucky enough to see Tony Kay play for us, and for my money, although we have had some tremendous midfield players, Tony was the best.

Had the stupid ban been imposed on his England internationals, Swan and Layne, then it would have been Tony dancing round Wembley with the World Cup, not Nobby Stiles who wasn't in the same class as Tony.

He was ferocious in the tackle and I can't remember him ever losing a 50/50 even though there were some very tough players around in his day.

His reading of the game and distribution were excellent. I am delighted he will be among the many ex-players being presented to the crowd on Saturday. I am sure he will get the ovation he deserves.

MK - that email address doesn't work (and yes, I know how to enter it correctly - I just did the Bobs Learning Cyber security course)

Ahh, Becky Tallentire - there's a name from the past. Memories of the Netley flooding back (perhaps the wrong turn of phrase thinking back to the Netleys dodgy gents...)

Hi Becky!

I met Tony Kay whilst playing in the London Old Boys league about 30 years ago. My team, the Old Thorntonians, were away to some team in South London and after the game we went into the clubhouse bar. There were Everton photos all over the wall and I asked a friendly looking chap why? He said, "cos I used to play for them". It was Tony Kay. I blathered something like, "I wish you still did" and he just laughed and said, "yeah, so do I"! Given he must've been about 60 then I can understand the giggle. We had a short chat, I don't remember the details, but he was warm and friendly and seemed happy to chat to a Blue, even though I never got to see him play as my first game was 1968.

UTFT

Like MM I can’t get that email address to work.
Please check and post the correct one.

Tony Kay.
What a player. A rottweiler in the tackle and then when
he'd won the ball he was off with pace and determination.
He had a presence about him on the pitch you could almost
feel.
A tough skilled player. You'd want him in the trenches with you.
Everton playing Blackburn Rovers at Goodison, who were a good
footballing team at the time. They were attacking, Tony tackled
their player. He didn't get up. Tony was off with the ball .
Matt Woods was their centre half, a big tough no nonsense player.
He ran straight for Tony. There was collective intake of breath
from the 40,000 plus at Goodison. Everybody could see what was
going to happen even the tea lady.
Tony looked up, in an instant he hit the ball with great power
and it hit Woods in the stomache.
He went down like a sack of potatoes. Tony ran past him like he
was discarded ciggy packet .
There was a momentary silence then a collective exhail.
We weren't quite sure what we had just seen.
Sixty years plus and it's as clear today as it was then.
Every time I see the name Tony Kay I remember and I also
remember what a great loss his ban was to Everton and English
football.
In a team of Everton greats he stood out .

I've said it in another post hes the best midfield player I've watched. Concur with all the comments about his tackling and distribution.
In the post I did try to licken him to any modern player - the one that comes to mind is Idrissa Guye when he was at his peak.

Sorry, lads.

It should be news at the end, instead of com.

See corrected email address up above.

Great memories Mark and David.

Frank, I thought about that saying that. Again, I can only go off accounts of those who watched him, but their descriptions made me think of Gana, but a better version.

Listening to a reading people's accounts of Tony Kay makes me think of one simple instructions I learned very early on.

Win your battles and earn the right to play football.

Football in it's purist form can be a simple game, made complex by over-analysis.

Like Danny (same age) I can only go off what my father and his peers said about the great man, and they were unanimous in both how much they rated him, and how unjust they thought the ban was.

This thread has brought back memories - The original pre-match meeting point for people on ToffeeNet was the Netley. Mark - the toilets were famous for being minging. When you opened the door a stream of flies would leave, and I'm sure I heard one of them gasp "Thanks lad".

It was also where I met Becky, not long after the first book "Talking Blue" was featured, where I got to pose a couple of questions, one to Kevin Sheedy (sorry Danny) and also got a pen picture, like the other contributors, in the book. I bought a copy for my Dad, and it was pride of place on his book shelf.

A few other charecters frequented the place. "Lemme", "TicketB'Stard" (Mr. Allinson never let me down with away tickets in over 4 years in London).

I'm also reminded of a story involving ToffeeNet, Becky, and a mysterious character known as "Kermit" who was residing in North America. What was meant to be a message from Becky to someone directly, ended up being posted to the whole group. Providing much mirth whilst we waited for sun up Stateside...

My memory is hazy with my advancing years. Wondering if anyone can shed any light Michael?

Matt, if I'd have bumped into Sheedy, I would have been lost for words and probably have fainted!!

Matt - I used to travel away with the NTAS as well - we must’ve met?

I also met Becky in the Netley back then.

Best away days were Chelsea (the White Horse at Parsons Green) Arsenal and Fulham. Spurs was good until the attack on the Antwerp arms, cnuts ran in swinging then ran out before we knew what was happening.

Good crowd the NTAS.

UTFT

David (5),

I don't know if that was the same game Everton v Blackburn but if it was it was the only game Tony was ever sent off, for an offence against Bryan Douglas the Blackburn and England winger.

It was the game Everton lost 4-2 with Fred Pickering scoring the first of two hat-tricks at Goodison — one for Blackburn and one for Everton on his debut v Notts Forest in a 6-1 victory.

Tony also gets my vote as the best wing half I ever saw at Everton. His friend Joe Murray was a legend in his own right as a character and massive Evertonian. He passed away last year and was a very good friend to Tony after they met. Joe was born in Dublin but came to Liverpool as a youngster and fell in love with the place and especially Everton.

Dave A.

In Everton's better days, when they were playing in Europe they played Inter at Goodison 1963. We beat them 1-0.

They had Luis Suarez, a great player and a Spanish International in their team, must be something in the name.

He got knocked over and as he was laying on the floor Tony ran past and stood on his fingers. He never said anything but he had that Spanish expression for "What the fuck?" on his face.

Me and my mates thought it was hilarious.

Dave A - - I was a both those games re Fred Pickering - - remeber The Forest goalie - - Peter Grumitt (?) - - also Dave M - - I went to the Inter Milan game straight from school - - Cardinal Godfrey - - went with my schoolmate Frankie Bones(Jones) - - who I met up with a few months ago in The Dark House with his brother John - - another True Blue - - these are tremendous memories and link us forever to Goodison Park.

1963: Everton 4-1 Fulham

I was at Goodison to see Everton win Division 1, with Roy Vernon getting a hat-trick. Now, 62 years later and 12,000 miles away, in my mind's eye I can see it all again.

In that great side, none was better that Tony Kay. He was that absolute rarity: a really classy player but also the hardest of hard men, without parallel in the tackle.

I think he was about 25 then. Imagine what could have been without that mindless suspension. Salutations Tony.

Phil Teece
Sunshine Bay NSW Australia

Some talk of the Netley...was it at the bottom of Langham Street?

Used to meet up at my grandparents on Langham Street before and after the game.

David (13) Yes “Those were the days my friend, We thought they'd never end”
But we got a few good years with John Moores and Harry Catterick in charge and to be fair Johnnie Carey to start it off.

George (14) Nice to hear from you George—— The players were the ones who got us to go there but they came and went but the friends we went to the match with are our constant memories and they'll be in my thoughts on Sunday—one of them a Liverpool fan who we shared alternative Saturdays watching our teams at Goodison and Anfield if I wasn't following the Blues at away games—quite a few players will always be part of those memories like Ted Sagar, TG Jones and Peter Farrell from just after the war to Brian Labone, Bobby Collins, Roy Vernon Tony Kay and Alex Young from the sixties then Ball, Harvey, Kendall, Morrissey (who played in the ‘63 team as well) Wilson and Royle in the seventies—then those players who gave us a wonderful four years in the eighties, Southall to Sheedy they were essentially a very good team along with Richardson and Harper woven together by Howard and Colin—there have a few since then but definitely not enough with one of them who could have played in any Everton team since 1878and stood out Wayne Rooney but alas that wasn't to be.

Some memories never fade but millions of them will come alive on Sunday— I hope we all have a wonderful day being there or watching on TV.

Definitely remember the Blackburn game. Douglas was a good player but a niggly little wind-up merchant as well. Don't know what set it off but right in the middle of the pitch, Kay laid him out. Seem to remember it as an elbow but of course there was no TV to capture it.

Andy (18),

Yes, Douglas got a lot of heavy tackles because he was a very tricky little player but he wasn't a cry-arse like a lot of players are. If he got tackled unfairly, which he did quite often, he waited for his moments and gave the tackles back.

In this incident with Tony Kay, I don't know what started it off, but Tony got him, in the middle of the pitch, with an elbow right in Douglas's back and everyone saw it including the referee. So Tony was done fair and square, maybe the reason was Everton were getting beat and Douglas was having a very good game.

Mark #11, I lived in London from late 97 to early 2001, and was in Hampshire for the next 2 years so always went to the London games then as well.

I did sort a couple of pre-match pubs, based on which ones I knew were sound from playing in a works league in London.

They were really great days - occasionally punctuated by a great performance. I know a lot of the Liverpool Blues only got home in the early hours, but more often than not, so did us London-based Blues!

Worst/best of the lot, was probably West Ham at the Boleyn, when we won 4-0 (Barmby hat-trick). I don't quite know how, but I ended up in a lock in in the Blind Beggar!

My Grandfather and father both told me, Tony Kay was without doubt, the best footballer they had ever seen who wore the Blue of Everton.

The player that came nearest to him was Alan Ball, according to my father. They also told me, he would have been the first name on the England team sheet, in 1966.

It's such a pity that I never got to see him play. Good wishes to Tony and good luck with the project.

My post, No,13.
Appologies to you Blues I didn't mean to use the
' F ' word . Must have been auto generated although I must
admit Everton have driven me to a few not in Roget's.

Becky,

I did get a couple of emails that I forwarded to your last known address… but they bounced back undelivered.

Better late than never!

David and Dave - I was at those 2 games v Inter and Blackburn - Boys pen and Gwladys Street respectfully when Tony was the star for us.

There is a YouTube film of the Inter game and even amongst our other great players and theirs, Tony was clearly the Man of the Match.

Bryan Douglas was a notoriously dirty player and they had already beaten the Reds at Anfield. Tony flattened him and he went down like a boxer after an uppercut when the play was up the other end. I think the linesman spotted it and so, yes, he was sent off.

What a shock when he was disgracefully banned for life and we never won the league until 1970.

He also played for the Football League team ahead of Bobby Moore and the rest I remember.

A fantastic player… never replaced – although Brian Harris did his very best to.

Jack #21,

I was given the same information as you – and hope that Tony appears on the pitch on Sunday.

Tony Abrahams??

I'll have your seat, Tone, if you're on the pitch!

Get in!