Watty Keay
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Walter Keay | ||
| Date of birth | 16 January 1871 | ||
| Place of birth | Whiteinch, Glasgow, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 16 January 1943 (aged 72) | ||
| Place of death | Winchester, England | ||
| Playing position | Inside Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Brookland | |||
| Whitfield | |||
| Whiteinch | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Partick Thistle | |||
| Darlington | |||
| 1893–1895 | Derby County | 24 | (7) |
| 1895–1900 | Southampton | 60 | (22) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Walter "Watty" Keay (16 January 1871 – 16 January 1943) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an inside forward for various clubs, including Partick Thistle in Scotland and Derby County and Southampton in England. His main claim to fame was scoring the first goal at The Dell stadium on its opening on 3 September 1898.
Keay was born in Whiteinch, Scotland and played as a youth for various local sides before starting his professional career at nearby Partick Thistle. He later moved south to Darlington to seek fame and fortune before signing for Derby County in July 1893.
He spent two seasons with the Midlands club, supplying the crosses for Steve Bloomer, John McMillan and John Goodall to score. Derby finished third in Division 1 in 1893–94, scoring 73 goals in 30 games, but in the following season they finished fifteenth and had to play-off against Liverpool, who were relegated.
In the spring of 1895, Charles Robson, the newly appointed secretary/manager of Southampton St. Mary's, and Alfred McMinn, one of the club committee, visited the Midlands in search of new players to strengthen the team ready for their second season in the Southern League. McMinn was a native of Staffordshire and was "most persuasive on his home turf". On this trip, Robson and McMinn signed six players: Keay, Joe Turner, Jack Farrell, Samuel Meston and Willie Naughton from Stoke and Alf Wood from Burslem Port Vale, as well as recruiting Stoke's long-serving trainer, Bill Dawson. The Saints committee were anxious to secure their services and signed then before the Football League season was over. Port Vale and Stoke lodged a complaint with The Football Association about "poaching", and an emergency FA meeting was held at Sheffield, resulting in the Saints being severely censured for negligence. St Mary's were ordered to pay their own costs, plus £4 6s 3d to Stoke and £1 13s to Port Vale. McMinn was suspended for a year and Dawson for a month. Wood's registration with St Mary's was cancelled (shortly afterwards he moved to Stoke).
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