580 Nick Deacy

Biography

Striker Nick Deacy joined the Tigers in February 1980 and while hindsight may not view his time at Boothferry Park especially kindly, at the time his signing was a pretty remarkable coup – a striker in his mid-twenties prime with international caps under his belt and a recent winner of Dutch league titles and the UEFA Cup. He clearly had something about him that justified his £94,000 fee.

Alas that something was a reluctance to score goals in anything like the volume his reputation and salary demanded. City manager Mike Smith had been in post for two months when he swooped to claim the signature of the man he had capped twelve times for Wales during 1977 and 1978, and Deacy was slotted straight into the City forward line alongside serial goalscorer Keith Edwards. Initially Edwards’ prowess in front of goal compensated for Deacy’s inability to score, though when his first goal came in April 1980 it was a good one, an equaliser in the local derby at Grimsby Town in front of 18,000 fans.

Deacy’s second City goal punished local rivals Grimsby Town for a second time in a July 1980 Anglo-Scottish Cup tie and the Tigers entered the 1980/81 season with a plan to launch an assault on promotion to Division Two. To say it didn’t go to plan is an understatement, as City won just two of their opening 21 league fixtures, Deacy scoring just twice in an August 1980 draw against Exeter City and a November 1980 victory over Plymouth Argyle – he would have been devastating in the Devon leagues. Nick was now playing on the left side of the attack and matters continued to spiral downwards in the early months of 1981, though the decline was punctuated by an unlikely six match FA Cup run that culminated in a famous Fourth Round tie at White Hart Lane that threw Tony Norman into the limelight as he repelled Tottenham attacks for 80 minutes. A brief April 1981 revival saw City go unbeaten for four matches, in which Deacy scored twice, but by then relegation to Division Four was inevitable.

Deacy’s scoring record wasn’t any better in the fourth tier despite being chosen as centre forward on several occasions, hitting just one goal in November 1981 against Mansfield Town. The increasingly frantic Smith, aware that the money he splodged on promotion had had the opposite effect and placed the club’s finances in dire straits, switched Deacy to centre half in November 1981. This switch had a positive effect, the forward line was hardly denuded by Deacy’s absence and the defence conceded only ten goals in thirteen games. However by March 1982 the club was placed in receivership, Smith was jettisoned and Deacy, briefly restored to the forward line by caretaker managers Bobby Brown and Chris Chilton, played his last game at the end of March 1982 before heading to Hong Kong for a payday. In those last few weeks of his time at City Deacy had been an outspoken critic of the club’s directors and the financial plight they had heaped upon the club.

Nicholas Simon Deacy was born in Cardiff and took a less conventional route into the professional ranks. In the late early 1970s he played non-league football in South Wales for the excitingly named Cardiff side Cosmopolitan FC and Southern League side Merthyr Tydfil while working in a Cardiff steelworks – at Merthyr he played alongside aging Welsh international legend John Charles, who spotted Deacy playing parks football.

In September 1974 Deacy signed his first professional contract when signing for English Division Three side Hereford United with Merthyr Tydfil receiving a £1,300 fee. By December 1974 he had only played in Welsh Cup ties and seeking first team action, he went on a one month loan Division Four rivals Workington. During December 1974 he made his senior debut for the Reds against Bradford City, scored his first senior goal against Crewe Alexandra and returned to Edgar Street ready for New Year’s Eve with one goal in 5 appearances under his belt. Within a few weeks of the New Year Nick had broken into the Hereford United first eleven, scoring on his first start in February 1975 against Grimsby Town. He ended the 1974/75 season with two goals for the Bulls in 17 appearances.

In June 1975 Deacy followed a path rarely trodden, swapping Hereford’s Edgar Street for PSV Eindhoven’s Philips Stadion in return for a £20,000 fee. He had impressed representatives of the Dutch giants when Hereford won a post-season tournament in the Netherlands during May 1975 and he joined a Dutch side that were sweeping all before them in domestic and European competitions. In the 1975/76 season PSV won the Dutch Eredivisie title and the Dutch Cup, while also reaching the European Cup semi-final – Deacy scored four goals in 15 appearances, two of which came in an October 1975 European Cup demolition of Northern Irish side Linfield who were beaten 8-0 in PSV’s home leg. Deacy also came on as substitute in both legs of the European Cup semi-final, which French giants Saint-Etienne won on aggregate with the only goal in two ties.

In the 1976/77 season Nick played more regularly for the PSV first team in both domestic and European fixtures, hitting two goals in 28 appearances. In the 1977/78 season PSV again won the Dutch league and also lifted the UEFA Cup, winning the two-legged final 3-0 on aggregate over the Corsicans of Bastia – Deacy came on as substitute in the triumphant second leg and lifted a European trophy, a feat few ex- and future Hull City players ever achieved. By the 1978 close season Deacy had scored thirteen goals in 76 appearances for PSV.

In the 1978 close season Deacy switched to Beringen, a Belgian Division One side, and in a season and a bit he scored ten times in 44 appearances, attracting the attention of Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem who signed him in December 1979 – after only two months in Arnhem and just nine appearances for the Vitas, in February 1980 he headed back across the North Sea to sign for Hull City.

Deacy and Micky Horswill both left Hull City in March 1982 and joined Happy Valley in Hong Kong. In September 1983 Deacy returned to the UK and joined Division Four side Bury, where he scored one goal in 38 appearances during the 1983/84 season mostly in a more defensive role – he participated in the loosest sense in an October 1983 0-10 League Cup defeat to Division One side West Ham United. He left Bury in the 1984 close season and by October 1984 Deacy was back at Merthyr Tydfil and scoring goals for the Southern League side. He spent the summers of 1985 and 1986 in Hong Kong playing for Happy Flower before joining Welsh League side Ebbw Vale in September 1986, leaving the club in March 1987 due to a cost cutting exercise. He moved on the Welsh League rivals Barry Town in March 1987 where he played irregularly during the 1987/88 season. Deacy spent the 1988/89 season at Welsh League side Cwmbran Town before hanging up his boots. In March 1986 he agreed to become the president of the Welsh Football Programmes Club.

In December 1973 Deacy won an amateur international cap against England, just reward for the goalscoring form he was showing at the time at Merthyr Tydfil. He won Wales Under-21 caps in a May 1975 tournament in Amsterdam, then added a single Wales Under-23 appearance when scoring a late consolation goal in a February 1976 2-3 defeat to Scotland. A year later Deacy’s form during his PSV Eindhoven heyday impressed Wales senior manager Mike Smith – after a goalscoring February 1977 return to the Wales Under-21 team as an over-age player, in March 1977 Nick celebrated his first senior cap with another goal in a World Cup qualifier against Czechoslovakia. Over the next twenty months Nick scored further goals against Scotland in June 1977, Northern Ireland in May 1978 and Turkey in November 1978, a match in which he won the last of 12 senior caps for his country.

When his football career ended Deacy retrained as an IT Technician, working for many years at British Aerospace at Filton in Bristol and occasionally travelling to the BAe sister plant in Brough near Hull.

Details

Nationality: Wales
Date/Place of Birth: 19 July 1953, Cardiff
Hull City First Game: 1 March 1980, Chester H (Division Three), 26 years, 226 days old
Hull City Final Game: 26 March 1982, Colchester United A (Division Four), 28 years, 250 days old

Clubs

Cosmopolitan FC (1970-1971), Merthyr Tydfil (1971-1974), Hereford United (1974-1975), PSV Eindhoven (1975-1978), FC Beringen (1978-1979), Vitesse Arnhem (1979-1980), Hull City (1980-1982), Happy Valley (1982-1983), Bury (1983-1984), Merthyr Tydfil (1984-1985), Double Flower (1985-1986), Ebbw Vale (1986-1987), Barry Town (1987-1988), Cwmbran Town (1988-1989)

Hull City Record

Career: 105 apps, 9 goals