Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Sexual Ealing on June 03, 2026, 05:39:20 PM
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I saw on social media it was his 62nd birthday yesterday. He never seems to get mentioned on here. He was one of the reasons I first loved Villa, and my memory is of a tricky, winding (but probably inconsistent) winger, but he never gets his flowers.
I'm too young (I love writing that, aged 48) to remember, but was there a falling out? Or perhaps my memory is playing tricks and he wan't that good, but he went to Rangers (their first black player? He suffered some horrible racism, anyway) when they were good and rich and Liverpool (when they were shite under Souness), so he must've had something.
What's the story, you old gets?
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He was good for us, then he was too good for us but he wasn't ever good enough to be a legend. He's still around on matchdays and was playing in the local leagues until he was about forty; he said he had nothing else to do on a Saturday afternoon.
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Cheers Dave. So no big schism; he just moved on and so did we, in our way?!
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Walters was very good, scored some crackers. We were shit and he left. Should have had more than 1 England cap. Wasn't overly popular when he returned with Liverpool especially for his reaction when scoring in the Rosenthal game.
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He was pretty much always our best player when I first started watching us every week, in the 1983 onward period. We were skint, Doug would sell everything that wasn't nailed down and at the time Rangers were paying very big money for English players, from memory I think he went for about £650k. Looking back he wasn't particularly quick, didn't score a lot of goals but the ones he did were usually brilliant, Spartak Moscow away springs to mind. Also, however good a winger he was, there was no one left to get on the end of his crosses. He did really well at Rangers but so did a lot of average Joes.
By the time he'd gone most of the crowd had given up on us so didn't really blame him for getting out.
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He was my favourite player in my teens, to the point where I named my first cat after him (despite discovering the cat was actually female). He had amazing ball control. Wasn’t his cousin a world keepie uppie champion or something? I vaguely remember him walking around the pitch at halftime juggling the ball the whole way.
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Despite leaving halfway through he was still one of our top scorers in the promotion season. He suffers a bit as there isn't footage of a lot of his best stuff. his goal v Luton for example. Plus our crowds were shit so it was closer to apathy than anything else when he left.
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A day that surprisingly moody at times
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Morley on the left and Walters on the right! Unfortunately the rumour was that Morley had done a lot of long distance runs over the summer previous to get over the disappointment of not being selected for the World Cup squad and lost a bit of explosive pace as a result.
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I remember my Dad coming back from Villa youth games singing the praises of this young lad called Walters, previous to Walters it was Sid who turned out to be his favourite ever Villa player. There was very high expectation of Walters developing into a top, top player but he never reached those heights for us, still a lovely player to watch on his day but he made his breakthrough at the wrong time as PW pointed out, not long after Ellis came back.
Truth be told, he was born at the wrong time for the talents he had, today he'd most likely be in the US with the England team. Back in the 80s he was surrounded by cloggers and wannabe hard men and that's before you even get to the racist fans both home and abroard. I'm sure there was a Villa game in Europe where he suffered abuse that made the headlines but can't remember where.
Looking around online I came across this about his time with us as a Coach with the Academy:
"I coached for 10 years and coached for Aston Villa for six or seven of those years in the academy. When a full-time job came up, I wasn't even considered for the job and I was the only one who had played league football, never mind represented Aston Villa 200 times and scored a few goals for them.
"When I saw that, I was very disillusioned. Luckily I had options and carried on working for the FA and did other things. But some people have no choice."
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He was probably one of my first heroes and I was gutted he left. Tony Daley emerging helped soften the blow though.
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He was my favourite player in my teens, to the point where I named my first cat after him (despite discovering the cat was actually female). He had amazing ball control. Wasn’t his cousin a world keepie uppie champion or something? I vaguely remember him walking around the pitch at halftime juggling the ball the whole way.
Oh yes, I’m sure I have a memory of him on Blue Peter!
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Yeah, I remember him from Midlands Today and probably Children in Need or one of those things. I used to get a total buzz as an eight-year-old in Telford when anyone said 'Aston Villa Leisure Centre' on TV!
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I remember a Youth Cup game where ia low cross came in,one touch ,quick accurate shot to score.
I'm fairly certain that Graham Taylor played him as a twin striker for a short while.Give him space,he was lethal.As Rudy Can't Fail says,he was born in the wrong era.More protection from referees and his skill and finishing ability would have shone,particularly in Emery's Villa.
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As I recall, he scored a hat-trick against Crystal Palace at Villa Park, including two penalties.
SGT talked of making him into Villa's John Barnes if he stayed. Within days, he was gone.
At least the sizeable fee gave the finances a boost for signing the Gray twins and Platty.
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I was at Northampton when he scored that goal in the FA Cup game
Saw Mark at the warehouse prior to the Liverpool game
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Yeah, I remember him from Midlands Today and probably Children in Need or one of those things. I used to get a total buzz as an eight-year-old in Telford when anyone said 'Aston Villa Leisure Centre' on TV!
It's hard being a young man or a boy in Telford.
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Great dribbling skills and close control. Poor crosser. Used to get crowd on their feet when he got the ball but often flattered to deceive.
He wasn’t Tony Morley and suffered in comparison. Played in the relegation team.
Thrived under Taylor and earnt a transfer. We weren’t too sorry to see him go as we could then rebuild under GT.
Then gestured at Holte when scoring for Liverpool and never seemed to fondly referred to us until very recently.
Tony Daley much more fondly remembered and more effective once GT discovered his trigger!
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He was wonderful. Slap bang in the middle of a series of wingers who just got you out of your seat (if you had one). Frankly, at that time, everyone who was any good had a danger of ending up at Rangers for European football/cash. But it was pleasure watching him. So much skill, pure football enjoyment. File with Morley, Shaw, Little, Yorke, Daley... all those who just did things normal players rarely achieved.
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I'd say he was more talented than Morley or Daley, but he had the misfortune of playing in under performing sides with some average to shit managers and not many in the ground. May be why I love Daley and Morley a lot more than him despite the first part of this post.
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I don't think I've seen a more talented player. A few as talented, but none more. He was wonderful to watch. It was a weird time, between teams we love to this day, but he'd have fitted beautifully into any great Villa side. Sod the noise, he's was something special.
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Brian Little said he was the best young player he'd ever seen.
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Like many players I think Walters needed good players around him to shine. At 18 in the team which had just won trophies trophies domestically and in Europe he looked like a world beater but then I also remember him constantly slipping in games during the Turner era and getting quite a lot of stick. At least when he wanted to leave he didn't down tools but he get a load of abuse when he came back to Villa Park with Liverpool and scored in Dean Saunders' home debut game.
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I loved him when I was kid. The first in a long line of talented young get players who left the club to play for Livarsespursea Utd.
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My abiding memory of him is the Small Heath game at their place. A ball was played into him at pace on the wing, he threw a dummy to the defender leaving him flat on his arse for Walters to retrieve the ball 15 yards up the pitch. The audacity of such a play in a tense local Darby was something to behold. I was watching behind enemy lines in the Kop, even my nose mates looked on in awe.
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A day that surprisingly moody at times
I got a slap in the face after the game, at the Northampton bus station.
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Im 52. Ive got a blurry memory of Morely being my first Villa hero, but given my age at the time, me being 7 or 8, that ended up being relatively fleeting.
Then there was Walters for my last few years of primary school and first year or so at secondary, I loved him. I have vivid memories of being about 10 years old playing footie over the park, skinny auburn haired Irish decent kid, doing the Mark Walters step over or trying.
In hindsight he played in a declining team and by the time he left, I guess average crowds of about 12,000.
One memory that sticks out, the year we got relegated, we played Chelsea at home in the 3rd round of the cup. We were losing 1-2 with a minute or so left, it was half empty and icy on the lower holte. Walters got the ball on the right wing, did his shimy and crossed for Steve Hunt to score a diving header. I slipped arse over tit on the steps. We inevitably lost the replay.
From memory he was pulling up trees for us in the old division two, but he was too good for that division. We sold him to Rangers just before the end of the year in 86. The very next game we beat Hull at home 5-0 on new years day. I am sure some were singing ‘who the f**k is mark walters’!
Top player at the wrong time
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Incredible levels of skill but the return of Ellis and his dismantling of the great team that Saunders had built left MW high and dry.
I always felt that there was a suspicion that he didn't really fancy the rough stuff.
There was a really good documentary on him and how he dealt with the racist abuse that players had, unfortunately, to put up with in those days. No social media cowards then, so you had to release your racist bile in plain sight. It might still be on the iplayer.
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Im 52. Ive got a blurry memory of Morely being my first Villa hero, but given my age at the time, me being 7 or 8, that ended up being relatively fleeting.
Then there was Walters for my last few years of primary school and first year or so at secondary, I loved him. I have vivid memories of being about 10 years old playing footie over the park, skinny auburn haired Irish decent kid, doing the Mark Walters step over or trying.
In hindsight he played in a declining team and by the time he left, I guess average crowds of about 12,000.
One memory that sticks out, the year we got relegated, we played Chelsea at home in the 3rd round of the cup. We were losing 1-2 with a minute or so left, it was half empty and icy on the lower holte. Walters got the ball on the right wing, did his shimy and crossed for Steve Hunt to score a diving header. I slipped arse over tit on the steps. We inevitably lost the replay.
From memory he was pulling up trees for us in the old division two, but he was too good for that division. We sold him to Rangers just before the end of the year in 86. The very next game we beat Hull at home 5-0 on new years day. I am sure some were singing ‘who the f**k is mark walters’!
Top player at the wrong time
i remember that cup game, we'd just got past the Holte Hotel when we heard the equaliser go in. Chelsea were shit as well.
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Im 52. Ive got a blurry memory of Morely being my first Villa hero, but given my age at the time, me being 7 or 8, that ended up being relatively fleeting.
Then there was Walters for my last few years of primary school and first year or so at secondary, I loved him. I have vivid memories of being about 10 years old playing footie over the park, skinny auburn haired Irish decent kid, doing the Mark Walters step over or trying.
In hindsight he played in a declining team and by the time he left, I guess average crowds of about 12,000.
One memory that sticks out, the year we got relegated, we played Chelsea at home in the 3rd round of the cup. We were losing 1-2 with a minute or so left, it was half empty and icy on the lower holte. Walters got the ball on the right wing, did his shimy and crossed for Steve Hunt to score a diving header. I slipped arse over tit on the steps. We inevitably lost the replay.
From memory he was pulling up trees for us in the old division two, but he was too good for that division. We sold him to Rangers just before the end of the year in 86. The very next game we beat Hull at home 5-0 on new years day. I am sure some were singing ‘who the f**k is mark walters’!
Top player at the wrong time
i remember that cup game, we'd just got past the Holte Hotel when we heard the equaliser go in. Chelsea were shit as well.
They weren’t great, I think we were linked with David Speedie at the time but Doug wouldn’t pay up I think. Neale Cooper also got a scrambled tap in for us that day.
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I was at a freezing cold and icy Stamford Bridge for the replay. We were shot but somehow took th e lead only to concede a very late equaliser and then lost in extra time. I remember one of their goals squirming past Spink who looked like he may get back to scoop it off the line but it inched over the line. It was a pretty depressing time to be a Villa fan in that era.
I really liked Walters and was convinced he, Cowans, Rideout and McMahon would form part of a great rebuild. So the ensuing disappointment was hard to take.
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As a as a schoolboy he played for England against a West German side at Wembley he had the German Right back on toast all afternoon. Sadly he was so under develop so his crosses rarely reached the penalty area. Still, he really looked the biz.
Few years later, and at Bodymoor I saw a training game and he was teamed up with Tony Daley, and was carnage.