Alan Deakin

Alan Deakin
Personnel
Surname	Alan Roy Deakin
birthday	November 27, 1941
place of birth	Birmingham ,  England
date of death	2nd January 2018
Place of death	Walsall ,  England
position	External rotor (left)
Juniors
Years	station
1956-1960	Aston Villa
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1958-1969	Aston Villa	231 (9)
1969-1972	Walsall FC	50 (0)
1972-1974	Tamworth FC
	Metropolitan Cammell
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1961-1964	England U-23	6 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Alan Roy Deakin (born November 27, 1941 in Birmingham , † January 2, 2018 in Walsall ) was an English football player . The outside runner played over 250 competitive games for Aston Villa in the 1960s .

Career

Alan Deakin, whose brother Mike was also a professional footballer, joined Aston Villa in November 1956. He received a professional contract shortly after his 17th birthday in November 1958 and was captain of the youth team when he played for the first time in the professional team on December 5, 1959 in a 2-1 loss to Rotherham United . It was Deakin's only competitive game of the season when the team rose to the First Division as second division champions . There he increasingly established himself as a left wing runner and counted together with Norman Ashe , Charlie Aitken , John Sleeuwenhoek , Harry Burrows , Mike Tindall and Alan Baker to the "Mercer's Minors", a group of talented young players who were added to the team by trainer Joe Mercer were introduced.

The season 1961/62 was the most successful season in Deakin's career . The team first played the late final of the League Cup 1960/61 , and secured it against Rotherham United after a 2-0 defeat in the first leg by a 3-0 home win after extra time in the second leg the title of the first-time competition. In November 1961 he played for the first time in the English U-23 team in a 7-1 win against Israel, he formed the runner row with Bobby Moore and Brian Labone . In the league, which Aston Villa finished in 7th place in the table, he meanwhile completed 40 games and also in the FA Cup 1961/62 they only failed in the quarter-finals at the eventual winner Tottenham Hotspur .

In October 1962, Deakin traveled as "12. Mann ”with the English national team to an international match in Belfast, but since none of the players nominated for the starting XI failed, Deakin remained in the reserve role. A little later he was nominated as a selection player of the Football League for a game against the Irish League , but had to cancel his participation due to injury. Villa's team was subsequently able to perform remarkably well, including Manchester United was beaten 4-0 in November 1963 when Denis Law was sent off after a kick against Deakin, but overall the team lacked consistency . After Deakin had already missed the final of the League Cup in 1963 against Birmingham City (1: 3 and 0: 0) due to injury, a broken ankle in the season 1964/65 ensured that he missed half of the season's games.

For the 1966/67 season he was elected team captain and was represented with a column in the sports newspaper Sports Argus . Aston Villa continued the downward trend that had already begun in previous years - since the 1962/63 season they were always placed in the bottom third of the table - and rose at the end of the season as penultimate in the second division. In the second division season 1967/68 Deakin was the only player in Aston Villas squad who had previously played with the club in a second class. Also in the Second Division failed to reverse the trend and the team, which was rebuilt by coach Tommy Cummings , was in the lower half of the table, while Deakin continued to have injury problems.

After he played no role in the squad planning of Aston Villa, he moved in October 1969 to the third division for nearby FC Walsall free of charge . Since the downward trend at Aston Villa continued, there were two clashes in the third division in the following season, which Walsall, each with the participation of Deakin, successfully designed (3-0 home win, 0-0 away). In 1972 he ended his professional career with Walsall and played for some time in non-league football at Tamworth FC .

After retiring, Deakin became a welder for a company in Birmingham and appeared regularly for the Aston Villa Old Stars at charity games.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alan Deakin in the barryhugmansfootballers.com database. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
2. ↑ ^{a b} UNWANTED 'RECORD' . In: Coventry Evening Telegraph , November 30, 1968, p. 45.  (paid link)
3. ^ ^{A b} Tony Matthews: The Legends of Aston Villa . Breedon Books, Derby 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-580-7 , pp. 49 .
4. ↑ Hellawell and Hinton Chosen for England . In: Birmingham Daily Post , September 25, 1962, p. 12.  (paid link)
5. ↑ APPLETON IN FOR LEAGUE . In: Coventry Evening Telegraph , October 30, 1962, p. 16.  (paid link)
6. ↑ VILLA'S NEW SKIPPER STEPS OUT WITH THE ARGUS . In: Sports Argus , August 13, 1966, p. 5.  (link subject to charge)
7. ↑ Alan Deakin joins Walsall . In: Birmingham Daily Post , October 10, 1969, p. 19.  (paid link)