Tony Field

Discarded by his home-town team Halifax and expecting his release after a three-month trial at Barrow, Tony Field was disillusioned with football. He was astonished that Barrow signed him on full-time, and he went on to help them win promotion to Division III (along with Southport) in 1967. As the player who was to provide Southport with their record Football League transfer fee of some £16,000 (plus Fred Goodwin), he had the rare ability to create chances out of nothing. ‘Flipper’ was manager Don McEvoy’s first capture, and although scoring on his début he managed only 7 goals in his first 53 games until he secured a regular place in the side in November 1969. In that relegation season he scored three hat-tricks — including all four goals in a 4—2 win over Torquay United. Always a positive player, he was a difficult man to dispossess, running powerfully with the ball — head down, shoulders hunched — into the heart of the opposing defence. He scored regularly for Blackburn before his transfer to Sheffield United, where he was an ever-present in the First Division side of 1974—75. He later performed with distinction alongside the legendary Pele for New York Cosmos, eventually settling with his family in Memphis, Tennessee, where he became a production manager with a steel stockholding firm. He still coaches indoor soccer.

Profile reproduced with Permission from:
The Sandgrounders: The Complete League History of Southport F. C., by Michael Braham and Geoff Wilde (Palatine Books, 1995). ISBN 978-1-874181-14-9

• Retained Lists

Retained List: 1967-68

1st June 1968 Daniel Hayes