Tony Coton
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Anthony Philip Coton | ||
| Date of birth | 19 May 1961 | ||
| Place of birth | Tamworth, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Mile Oak Rovers | |||
| 1977–1978 | Birmingham City | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1978–1984 | Birmingham City | 94 | (0) |
| 1979 | → Hereford United (loan) | 0 | (0) |
| 1984–1990 | Watford | 233 | (0) |
| 1990–1996 | Manchester City | 164 | (0) |
| 1996 | Manchester United | 0 | (0) |
| 1996–1997 | Sunderland | 10 | (0) |
| 2004 | Hereford United | 0 | (0) |
| Total | 501 | (0) | |
| National team | |||
| 1992 | England B | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Anthony Philip "Tony" Coton (born 19 May 1961) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Born in Tamworth, he made 500 appearances in The Football League and Premier League for Birmingham City, Watford, Manchester City and Sunderland. He came out of retirement briefly in 2004 for Hereford United following a goalkeeping crisis. After a short spell as a football agent, Coton became chief scout at Wigan Athletic. He also worked as a scout for Bolton Wanderers before becoming Aston Villa's head of goalkeeper recruitment in 2015.
Coton started his professional career at Birmingham City in 1978, having signed from Mile Oak Rovers the previous year. He made his Football League debut as a 19-year-old, on 27 December 1980 in the First Division match against Sunderland. His first touch of the ball was to save a penalty awarded after 54 seconds. By the 1982–83 season he had established himself as Birmingham's first choice goalkeeper.
Birmingham were relegated from the First Division at the end of the next season, but Coton found his way back into the top flight with a transfer to Watford, for a sum of £300,000. He soon replaced Steve Sherwood in Watford's goal and at the end of his second full season at Vicarage Road he won the Hornets' Player of the Season and Display of the Season awards, the latter for a clean sheet against Liverpool. He remained with the club even after their relegation from the First Division in 1988. He went on to become Watford Player of the Season for an unprecedented third time in 1989–90. Coton later became the second player to be inducted into Watford's Hall of Fame, behind club legend Luther Blissett.
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