Alan Deakin

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Seasons

Age*

Division

Appearances

Starts

Substitute

Unused

Goals

From

Played Under

Joe Mercer |
Dick Taylor |
Tommy Cummings |
Tommy Docherty |
Vic Crowe |

First Squad Appearance

Debut Appearance

First Goal

Wednesday, 22 March 1961

Final Appearance

Saturday, 4 October 1969

Preston North End (h), Division Two

Final Squad Appearance

Saturday, 4 October 1969

Alan Deakin

Player #478 for Aston Villa, Alan Deakin, played as a wing half for the club.

Alan played for Villa between 1959-60 and 1969-70 making 282 appearances and scoring 9 goals.

Alan was born in Balsall Heath, less than 5 miles from Villa Park on 27 November 1941 and made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 5 December 1959 aged just 18.

Villa may have had an up and down time on the pitch during the 1950s however one thing the club got very right was their youth policy of which Alan Deakin was a key product. Dubbed ‘Mercer’s Minors’ the group included Alan Deakin, Charlie Aitken, John Sleeuwenhoek, Harry Burrows, Mike Tindall and Alan Baker.

Villa had signed Alan from Cannon Hill Rovers in 1956 and he signed professional forms with the club on 29 November 1958.

Typified by his hard but fair tackling prowess with a neat eye for a pass, Deakin was a player of some class and influence during an often difficult time for Villa.

His versatility was a feature too and he made one famed appearance later in his career playing in the forward line, Alan was a man possessed carrying Villa - trailing 1-5 to Spurs - to a 5-5 draw on Saturday, 19 March 1966 with Alan scoring Villa’s second and nearly snatching the winner.

Alan made just a single appearance as Villa took the Second Division Championship and won promotion back to Division One at the first attempt.

However the following season 1960-61 saw Alan become a much more regular starter - a status he held for the next 8 seasons as he became a semi permanent fixture in the Villa first team.

As well as helping Villa securing the second division championship, Alan won the 1960-61 League Cup and helped Villa to runners up in the League Cup final in 1962-63 and a semi final in 1964-65..

During Villa’s victorious League Cup campaign in 1960-61 Alan made 9 appearances as Villa went on to lift the trophy after vanquishing Rotherham United in the two legged final which was held over to the following season due to fixture congestion.

Sadly however during Alan’s time with Villa the highest league finish achieved was 7th place in 1961-62 with Alan contributing 40 appearances - his highest ever league total. Villa over this period were regularly finishing well outside of the top 10 of the first division and Alan was to suffer two relegations with the club, falling into Division Two after the 1966-67 relegation season and then 3 years later - in his final season - seeing Villa fall into the Third Division, a level to which they had never previously fallen.

Alan made just one appearance during the disastrous 1969-70 campaign, playing his final game for Villa on Saturday, 4 October 1969 still aged just 27 following which he moved on to Walsall.

Alan had played under Villa managers Joe Mercer, Dick Taylor, Tommy Cummings and Tommy Docherty.

Alan passed away in Walsall on 2 January 2018 aged 76.