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    Eamonn Deacy

    I was sorry to hear of the death of former Villa defender Eamonn Deacy yesterday, aged 53. His career at the Villa was almost Roy Of The Rovers stuff; as I recall, he wrote to loads of English teams when he played for Galway Rovers, Villa gave him a trial and signed him. He stayed at the club for five years, playing only thirty-odd games, but picked up a Championship medal in 1981 as one of just fourteen players used that season, played a handful of games for Ireland, then decided to go back to Galway and run a grocer's. My fondest memory of him is of his only Villa goal, scored against Norwich; collecting the ball on the right wing, he beat two players, cut in to the corner of the box and lashed the ball into the top left corner of the goal. It was one of those surreal moments, when for a split second the Holte End did a collective double-take before raising the roof. He may not have been one of the all-time greats, but he was a decent player who made the most of his ability and always gave the '110%' Ron Saunders demanded of 'each and every one': I'm sure many will regret his passing at a comparatively young age.

    #2
    Eamonn Deacy

    I've just googled this and found that the cause of death was a heart attack.

    I interviewed him in Galway in 1999, one of my earliest assignments as a journo. The hook was that Man Utd had just made the Champions League final, Denis Irwin was going to play, and my editor wanted to do something about Irish players of the past who had featured at the business end of the European Cup.

    He suggested getting hold of Eamon Deacy, on the grounds that he had a chance to get a European Cup medal with Villa in 1982 but turned it down to instead go off on Ireland's ill-fated tour of South America and the Caribbean (0-7 v Brazil, 0-1 v Trinidad & Tobago, and another game against Chile which I can't remember the result of).

    Eamon initially didn't want to do the interview at all, out of sheer shyness. I talked him round, and presently got the train down to Galway, where we had a great chat in the Roches Stores restaurant on Eyre Street. Because it was so long ago, I can't remember too much of the resultant piece, but two things do stick out: that Eoin Hand berated him at half-time of the Trinidad game (one of the most embarrassing results in Ireland's history: T&T were an amateur outfit at the time and, in Eamon's words, were just "a team full of rasta men") for having put his shorts on the wrong way round ("That's how fucking organised you are, Deacy!"); and that he said he had realised his entire life's ambition the day he made his debut for Aston Villa. He said that he was not one of life's more ambitious people, and that as soon as he had played just one game in the top flight in England, he felt incredible and knew he had achieved inner peace. Just one game. That was all he ever wanted to do. In short, he had the kind of personality you hardly ever find in athletes of any kind now.

    The piece appeared on a Sunday. That afternoon, my phone rang. It was Eamon. I braced myself for some kind of abuse or attack, fearing that I had got some detail wrong or misrepresented him in some way. Instead, he thanked me for the piece and said he hoped I was well. If you're a hack, especially a young one, something like that gives you a real shot in the arm and leaves you feeling good for the rest of the day.

    His family had been in the fruit and veg business in Galway for years, and that's what he went back to when his football career finished. He seemed incredibly modest and laid-back that day in 1999. I hope the next 12 or 13 years were as good to him. I only spent two hours in his company, but he was one of the nicest and most decent people I've ever encountered. RIP.

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      #3
      Eamonn Deacy

      Ken McNaught:

      He could not have been a nicer bloke and all the players from that team will say the same.

      He was on the bench for most of the season when we won the league but whenever he was called upon he came on and did a good job.

      He was a great character to have around the place and was so unpretentious.

      I remember when he refused to go up and collect his league winners medal because he felt he had not contributed enough.

      He obviously had, because he did a great job every time he was called upon but that was just the way Eamon was.

      Ron Saunders made him accept it, though, in the end. He was just a great lad to be around.
      The stuff about not wanting to accept the league medal -- yeah, that sounds like Chick Deacy alright. A gentleman.

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        #4
        Eamonn Deacy

        Analogue Bubblebath II wrote:

        He said that he was not one of life's more ambitious people, and that as soon as he had played just one game in the top flight in England, he felt incredible and knew he had achieved inner peace. Just one game. That was all he ever wanted to do. In short, he had the kind of personality you hardly ever find in athletes of any kind now.
        Yeh, therein lies his appeal. He'd probably be labelled as a loser by some of the brats that play at the top level today, but what do they know? Sad news.

        I'd like to find out a bit more about that ill-fated tour of South America. Is there anything online?

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          #5
          Eamonn Deacy

          The bit about Deacy's medal deserves some embellishing. He didn't take his medal when all the other players did. When the team were at the Town Hall to show the trophy to a packed Victoria Square, Saunders gave him his medal. Deacy responded by bursting into tears. We won't see their like again.

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            #6
            Eamonn Deacy

            What a touching thread.

            Only last night I watched highlights of Villa's match with the Baggies in 1983. The half-time score was 3-3 and Deacy scored one of the goals.

            I'd almost forgotten about him.

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              #7
              Eamonn Deacy

              Very sad news. A touching thread, indeed.

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                #8
                Eamonn Deacy

                Bizarrely, my mam who has no interest whatsoever in football was talking to him last friday. She was in his brothers shop, and She would have known his family as galway was a small place in the sixties when she was in college. She said that their family were reknowned for being lovely people, which would have been unusual enough in the business community of a big irish town.

                she would have known that he was a footballer, but not much more than that. I was only dimly aware that villa had an Irish player who played in the season they won the league, but didn't know any details. It seems very sad.

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                  #9
                  Eamonn Deacy

                  ABII, that's a really lovely tribute.

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                    #10
                    Eamonn Deacy

                    I saw him play on a couple of occasions, the last of which was an FA Cup quarter final at Highbury. Villa were shocking, Deacy got more and more frustrated and was finally booked for kicking some Arsenal goon into the stand.

                    Players in that squad don't seem to have a bad word for him. I read of a Villa fan tracking him down in Galway in order to ask him to attend a dinner for the 81-82 squad or somesuch event in the last couple of years. Deacy started crying (again!), overcome that someone would make such an effort just to see him.

                    Great man.

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                      #11
                      Eamonn Deacy

                      Thanks Meregreen.

                      I must say I am a bit gutted about this. He was such a nice guy.

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                        #12
                        Eamonn Deacy

                        Great stuff up the top ABII, one of the best posts in the 10 or so years I've been on otf.

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                          #13
                          Eamonn Deacy

                          Some good background info on that '80-'82 Villa side that Eamonn Deacy was a part of:

                          http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006...eatures.sport7

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Eamonn Deacy

                            historyman wrote:

                            I'd like to find out a bit more about that ill-fated tour of South America. Is there anything online?
                            Some footage of the Brazil vs ROI game from that tour:

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