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It was the clicking noise made by the Villa Park seats as supporters stood up in the Trinity Road and old Witton Lane stands that signalled Tony Daley was on the ball.
These days it is Jack Grealish who gets Aston Villa fans on their feet, inspiring a wave of copycat hairstyles in the process, but 30 years ago it was Daley who was the local boy with a haircut to match his dazzling footwork.
Those who were present one Saturday in March 1990 will not forget the goal he scored against Luton – the one Daley cites as his favourite – just as the maker of the banner that read ‘Luton Stop The Daley Delivery’ will no doubt remember how his warning went unheeded.
It helped him win his first England cap against Poland at Wembley just over a year later, under his old Villa manager Graham Taylor, and book a place in the squad for the 1992 European Championships.
Injury has prevented Grealish being part of Gareth Southgate’s squad for Wednesday night’s visit of Poland, but the 25-year-old hopes to complete the path already trodden by Daley from Holte End fan to Holte End hero and representing his country at a major tournament.
Daley, now aged 53 and living in Sutton Coldfield, watched Villa become First Division champions from the Holte End and still caught the bus to games when he started playing for his boyhood club four years later.
“One of my brothers, Euton, was a massive Villa fan and we’d go down to watch games in the Holte End,” said Daley. “The season we went down quite regularly was when they won the league in 1981. I might have sneaked in without paying a few times! When it was the big games and it was a bit hard to get in, you’d somehow find a way.”
Growing up in the Newtown area of Aston, where he shared a four-bedroom house with his two parents and four or five of his six older brothers and sisters for most of his childhood, Daley did not need to invest in a car when he first started playing for Villa’s first-team as a 17-year-old in 1985.
“I used to get the No7 bus,” said Daley. “I remember getting it for a game against Liverpool, a night game. I’d got my boots with me and everything, but, of course, nobody recognised me back then.
“The bus stop was literally five metres as you walked out of our gate and it dropped you off just off the Trinity Road, so it was a two or three-minute walk to Villa Park. I played for about six or seven months while I was in Newtown before I bought a small place in Walmey in Sutton Coldfield.”
Daley was part of two Villa teams that finished second in the old First Division, in 1989-90 and 1992-93, and also played in the 1994 League Cup success against Manchester United at Wembley.
It was goals such as the stunning solo run against Luton that made Daley a popular player outside his native Birmingham and helped him to win seven England caps, two of which came in the European Championships.
“I’ve got a few favourites, but the goal against Luton is probably my best,” said Daley. “I’ve been told about the banner many times. I don’t remember seeing it, but several people have said that to me. I don’t know if it was the goal of the season or not, but a mate of mine told me the other day that he was watching Vila’s top 10 goals of the 1989-90 season and seven of them were mine! It was a really good year. I was flying.”
In what became his trademark No7 shirt, Daley was capable of destroying opposition defenders with his incredible turn of pace. He clocked 12 seconds over 100 metres as a 15-year-old, but did not enjoy athletics, despite being made to represent his school and run in the county finals.
“Apparently my mum used to do athletics when she was out in the Caribbean, but I hated it,” said Daley. “My dad was from Kingston and was quite a stocky, fit person, so I think the genes from both helped.
“I used to get fan mail, letters, and it wasn’t just from Villa fans, it was from all over the country. Sheffield Wednesday fans and all sorts saying they liked a particular goal or something. Some of the other goals that stood out were against Everton, a volley, West Brom in the FA Cup and there was a good one against Chelsea on New Year’s Day.”
Daley was a more reserved character than Grealish and would study for his accountancy course on the team bus during journeys to away games, but relished the excitement from the stands whenever he received the ball and also enjoyed the attention his hairstyles brought.
“When I got the ball at Villa Park, I just felt there was an expectation that I had to do something,” said Daley. “There was a brief silence and I could hear the seats going up and people getting out of their seats. I loved it. Being a local lad, the support I used to get was outstanding and thinking about the feeling and expectation brings shivers even talking about it now.
“Apart from playing football, the way I expressed myself was the way I dressed and my haircuts. I was never a shrinking violet when it came to that. It made people happy and, first and foremost, it made me happy.”
He laughed at the thought of Grealish sitting inside a hairdressing salon in Handsworth, but Daley remained a regular customer long after he had achieved regional and national fame.
“I always wanted to try different things out,” he said. “My hairdresser was a woman called Lurline in Handsworth and she helped me come up with these styles. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but the one that had a little dangly bit coming down my forehead got a lot of attention.
“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jack and he’s a lovely guy. He’s got his own personality and style, and I think he wears it well. If you take that away, the way people dress or their haircuts or whatever, then you lose what they are about. I was never captain like Jack, but being a local lad, I know exactly what it means to him to be playing for Villa.”
His pace and his hairstyles made Daley an obvious target for full-backs, who were often given a free hit on him at the start of games, while the mud-bath pitches were just as hard to navigate as avoiding the wild lunges.
“There were the likes of Julian Dicks and Stuart Pearce, and you knew what you were getting from them,” said Daley. “It was literally, the first tackle they could take you out, chest high, pretty much do what they wanted and the ref would go ‘that’s your first one’. So you knew what was coming.
“There was a lot of ‘next time, I’m going to f—— take you out’, but that never bothered me. I was never one for giving a load back, I’d just usually giggle at them and it would wind them up. It never worried me and you just got up if you did get kicked, and tried to run them again. I relished playing against the hard men, it was players like Earl Barrett and Dennis Irwin, who were quick and clever, who I found much more difficult. I was delighted when Earl joined Villa.
“The pitches were fine at the start of the season, but by the time you got to the end of year you were playing on mud. You got used to it, but I’d love to play on the pitches now.”
The large Wembley surface was a utopia for players back in Daley’s day and he holds fond memories of his England debut against Poland, even if it is scarcely believable that it will have been 30 years ago in November.
“I was on the bench for 70 minutes,” said Daley. “We went 1-0 down and I remember getting the first shout from Graham Taylor to go and warm up. I can still feel the butterflies now, good butterflies.
“It wasn’t a friendly, it was to get us qualified for the European Championships, 1-0 down, you need to get out there and make a difference. I went on and 10 minutes later Gary Lineker got the equaliser with a volley. That was a great moment to be part of.
“The two big things were to play for the team I supported as a kid and, of course, to represent my country. So, for me, it was an absolute dream come true.”
Following nine years as a first-team player at Villa, during which time Tottenham Hotspur and Udinese both looked into signing him, Daley moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers and then Watford but a series of injuries started to catch up with him and he retired in 2002 after short spells at Walsall and Forest Green Rovers.
After getting a sports science degree, he was a fitness and conditioning coach at Sheffield United before becoming head of sports science at Wolves, where he remained for 10 years. Daley now runs his own professional health and fitness business named 7D, and has spent the past nine years following an extreme diet that sees him fast for 24 hours each week.
“It’s the 16/8 diet, so I don’t eat for 16 hours from 8pm through to 12 noon the next day,” explained Daley. “Then I will get a couple of meals in between 12 until 6pm, which are completely carb free. I live on vegetables and meat, basically. I have an occasional cheat day on a Saturday, when I might have Chinese or pasta or something. Sunday is back to my normal routine and from 6pm Sunday, I then don’t eat for 24 hours until 6pm on Monday. It just suits my body and what I do is extreme. I certainly don’t push it on my clients.
“I got into fitness and the science behind it when I was injured and it really helped me mentally when all I wanted to be doing was playing football. I’ve got as much enthusiasm for what I’m doing now as I did as a footballer and this second part of my life is just as exciting and exhilarating as the first part was.”
Those who regularly left their seats at Villa Park to see him flying down the wing will testify that it was a pretty exhilarating watch.
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