Tony Hateley

[Brian Taylor]

TH gave going to VP an air of anticipation and he usually delivered..sad loss.

[villa `cross the mersey]

The miss by Alan Deakin in the last couple of minutes would have been the comeback of all times if he'd have hit it hard enough and not allowed a defender to get back and clear it off the line.  Ah well, cest la vie.

I was at the reserves with my late father on that very day - there were no radio broadcasts from the game, obviously no mobile phones - we relied on the good old telephone to relay the ongoing scoreline to the guy working the giant A, B,C D, E etc scoreboard at Villa Park.
It wasn`t until I picked up the Sports Argus at George Edwards Newsagent on Baldwins Lane later that night that I found out about Alan Deakin`s last minute sitter - the passing of TH brought back my memories of that day - RIP Tony and my thoughts go to his family.

[dave shelley]

VCM, me and my old lad were at the sty that day, and the score came up at half time to great cheering.  The week previous, we'd lost at home to Fulham 4-2, that was obviously nine goals conceded in a game and a half.

At the end of  the game, we hung around waiting for the full time scores to go up and, IIRC the Villa score was the last to go up.  When we saw 5-5 we genuinely thought they were taking the piss.  By the time we had walked into town the early editions of the Argus were on the streets and we couldn't believe that we had come back to salvage a draw.  It was a disappointment to read in the Sunday's that Alan Deakin had missed that sitter that would have given us the win.

[Steve kirk]

I remember talking to my Dad about Villa strikers who I thought were great headers of the ball like Lochhead, Withe, Dublin and Angel but he always said Tony was way better

[dave shelley]

I'm not altogether too sure but, I think the balls used back in 1963/64 were the old lace up heavy type, which make his heading ability/achievements all the more impressive.

[villa `cross the mersey]

I remember talking to my Dad about Villa strikers who I thought were great headers of the ball like Lochhead, Withe, Dublin and Angel but he always said Tony was way better

One missing from that list - Andy Gray - he was a great header of the ball despite not being that tall.

[Larry Duff]

Tony was my first hero down the Villa.  He was a magnificent header of the ball and could climb high and seemed to hang in the air.
He was a bit limited on the ground but his goals record in a poor Villa team was great.

Thinking back I remember a headline in the Evening Mail when he had obviously scored a winning goal yet again "Hateley the Head"

RIP Tony.

[Steve kirk]

I remember talking to my Dad about Villa strikers who I thought were great headers of the ball like Lochhead, Withe, Dublin and Angel but he always said Tony was way better

One missing from that list - Andy Gray - he was a great header of the ball despite not being that tall.

Apologies for forgetting Andy and yes he was tremendous in the air.

[Ron Manager]

Yes Andy Gray was a tremendous header of a ball for a man of 5' 10" (I think) indeed his aggressive all round game was magnificent. But Tony Hateley was the ariel master supreme. In fact I distinctly remember a game against Fulham in 65 when he rose just above the crossbar
at the Witton end. It took your breath away!

[Meanwood Villa]

A story my Dad tells. One game when Tony Hateley did an unusually skilful move to score, his(and Frank's) father turned to them and said "he went round that back just like Pongo Waring"
This was high praise indeed. 

[Ron Manager]

and finally me and mate were standing by the players tunnel at Tony's last game for us.A dire 0-0 against Sheff Utd . Tony had not delivered in this game and and an irate supporter shouted at him 'you big carthorse Hateley' as he was leaving the pitch. Big Tone identified him and replied in time honoured fashion...and that was his final Aston Villa game.

Not loved by some but fully appreciated by many others.

RIP Big Tone.

[SteveN]

It was one of the things with Hately that a lot of fans didn't appreciate him.  It has been said before that if he scored from 20 yards they would moan that it wasn't from 30 yards in the top left hand corner.  The poor fellow had a torrid time in that 0-0 draw with Aldershot.  I've never quite sure why he does not rank alongside Waring, Hitchens et al.

When you look at his goals scored to games played ratio when he was with us, his perfomance was quite staggering.  During that period we were a pretty mediocre at best team and I can only recall Woosnam giving him consistent ammunition. 

One thing this thread has shown that we could have a decent H&V Vets Team - over 60s assuming that we would all have been 12 or so years old when we saw him.

[dave shelley]

The thing about lack of appreciation for big Tone in the eyes of some supporters has been alluded to on here, and that is his lack of ground skills.  The fullness of time does tend to dim the memory or make certain inadequacies seem less than they were.

I loved big Tone but, I was in my mid-teens when he was playing for us and my memories of his on the ground skills were very average at best and that, more than anything was what certain sections of our support latched on to.

It also has to be remembered that there were supporters back then who would have been the age I am now and, they would have memories of centre forwards who would have been much better than Tony Hateley.  Perhaps it was the Old Gits of the day that were responsible for the stick he took.  I for one though, will never forget those thunderous headers.  Rock on Tone.

[dave.woodhall]

It could have been that the team he played in were bad, and getting worse. Harry Burrows, for example, was a great winger from that time but is never talked about as the great he deserves to be.

Anyway, I met Tony Hateley once. Within seconds he was giving me a masterclass in winning headers; pity it was twenty years too late to help me.

[dave shelley]

I was deeply upset when Harry Burrows left and it was only forty odd years later that I learned on here that it was allegedly for the sake of a fiver.