Eamon Deacy

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Eamon (n) Deacy
Personnel
Surname Eamon (n) S. Deacy
birthday October 1, 1958
place of birth Galway ,  Ireland
date of death February 13, 2012
Place of death Galway ,  Ireland
position Full-back (left)
Juniors
Years station
West United
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
Sligo Rovers
Limerick FC
1976-1979 Galway Rovers
1979-1984 Aston Villa 34 (1)
1983 →  Derby County  (loan) 5 (0)
1984-1991 Galway United
West United
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1982 Ireland 4 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Eamon S. "Chick" Deacy , also Eamonn S. Deacy (born October 1, 1958 in Galway , † February 13, 2012 ibid) was an Irish football player . Mostly in the left full-back position and in midfield, he was especially known and loved as a long-time player for Galway United (formerly: Galway Rovers). He also worked for five years at the English first division club Aston Villa between 1979 and 1984 and was involved in winning the English championship in 1981 as a supplementary player .

Athletic career

First years (1976–1979)

Deacy, born and raised in the western Irish city of Galway as the youngest of ten children, gained his first experience in organized football in the north with the Sligo Rovers and in the south with FC Limerick - both cities are about 100 kilometers away from Galway. Thanks to his general enthusiasm for sports, he was also interested in other sports and in addition to his rugby activities for St. Joseph's College and the Galwegians RFC , he also played Gaelic football . Nevertheless, his focus was clearly on the "round leather" and on the planned path to professional football, he tried his hand at trial training at FC Clyde in Scotland . Eventually, however, he took the opportunity to join the Galway Rovers in his home country . There he was part of the team that first participated with the club in the Irish League Cup in the 1976/77 season .

In the following season 1977/78 the " Tribesmen " were first approved for participation in the top Irish league, the League of Ireland , and Deacy, who first tried in midfield, made his mark against Thurles Town in the annals as first first division shooter of the club. The sporting successes were, however, moderate and in the first two years only the penultimate final table place jumped out. This did not correspond to the ambitions of "Chick", as his father had always called him as a child, and so he wrote letter after letter in which he asked for an audition. Finally he heard Ron Saunders - coach of the English first division club Aston Villa - and in March 1979 Deacy went to Birmingham.

Aston Villa (1979-1984)

On December 15, 1979 he was against Tottenham Hotspur (2-1) as a substitute his debut in the English top division and against Leeds United followed on April 19, 1980 his first appearance in the starting line-up as a left full-back. There he owed a penalty to the opposing winger Carl Harris , but it did no damage and the game ended 0-0. In the 1980/81 season he first shared the position on the left back with Colin Gibson , before then from November 1980 Gary Williams was the permanent solution in the Saunders team, which eventually won the English championship . Deacy only came into play sporadically and his contribution to the title was limited to a total of five appearances from the start and substitutions. He was reluctant to accept the official championship medal assigned to him because he felt that he had not done enough for it. The next probation chance in the first team he received again in the fall of 1981 during the absence of captain Dennis Mortimer as a defensive midfielder, but none of the six competitive appearances in the 1981/82 season was in the European Cup , which the Villans finally won surprisingly. In the final against FC Bayern Munich (1-0), he wasn't even on the bench as he was with the Irish national team instead . After he made his debut there on April 28, 1982 against Algeria (0: 2), the trip to America was unhappy with defeats against Chile (0: 1), Brazil (0: 7) and Trinidad and Tobago (1: 2) .

In the 1982/83 season Deacy played four league games on the right full-back post and scored his first and only competitive goal for the first team of Aston Villa on March 5, 1983 in the 3-2 win over Norwich City . Another highlight three days before was his substitution in the quarter-final first leg against Juventus Turin in the European championship competition , which ended with a 1: 2 defeat at home - with the later 1: 3 in Turin, the club was eliminated from the European Cup. In October 1983 he was then loaned to the second division club Derby County for a month . There he played five league games and after his return he often represented regular Gibson and came with a total of 13 league appearances in the 1983/84 season on his greatest yield. Nevertheless, he left the club in the summer of 1984 and went back to his Irish homeland in Galway.

Back in Ireland (1984–1991)

At Galway United , as the former Rovers were now called, he was gratefully accepted back into their own ranks and in the following seven years until 1991 he helped establish the club in the top Irish league. The greatest successes were winning the runner-up and league cup in 1986 and five years later winning the FAI Cup after beating Shamrock Rovers 2-1 in the final .

The always modest and somewhat shy Deacy finally withdrew from the first division football and devoted himself more to the family business in the fruit and vegetable trade, which he ran with his brother Ernie. However, he was not forgotten and in 2009 the University of NUIG awarded him an honorary doctorate for his services to sport in Galway . Almost two years later, he suffered a heart attack on the way to work and died at the age of 53. Shortly before, Galway United had accepted him into the club's own "Hall of Fame" and the funeral ceremony was attended by over 2000 people.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b (Republic of) Ireland league tables in the database of RSSSF (English)
  2. ^ Rob Bishop / Frank Holt: Aston Villa - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-805-1 , pp. 500 f .
  3. ↑ a b "Former Irish international Eamonn Deacy is mourned in Galway" (fai.ie)
  4. ^ "Irish Senior International: Eamon Deacy" (soccerscene.ie)
  5. ^ "Funeral takes place of Chick Deacy" (RTE Sport)
personal data
SURNAME Deacy, Eamon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deacy, Eamon S .; Deacy, Chick (nickname); Deacy, Eamonn S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Galway
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2012
Place of death Galway