Mark Walters

[sid1964]

I was at Northampton when he scored that goal in the FA Cup game

Saw Mark at the warehouse prior to the Liverpool game

[olaftab]

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.

[Crown Hill]

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!

[Simon Page]

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.

[PeterWithesShin]

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.

[Simon Page]

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.

[dave.woodhall]

Brian Little said he was the best young player he'd ever seen.

[Exeter 77]

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.

[Rigadon]

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. 

[Brend'Watkins]

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.

[Flamingo Lane]

A day that surprisingly moody at times

I got a slap in the face after the game, at the Northampton bus station.

[RamboandBruno]

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