It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City centre-half Tony Knapp at the age of 86. In 1967 Tony had the onerous task of replacing City legend George Curtis after the iconic club captain had suffered a broken leg at Nottingham Forest in the club's second game in the top flight. Manager Jimmy Hill moved quickly to find an emergency replacement and signed Tony from Southampton for £25,000 in time to make his debut in City's first home game in Division 1 against Sheffield United. His Highfield Road career lasted only 12 games until Noel Cantwell, Hill's replacement as manager, arrived and quickly recognised Maurice Setters as Curtis's medium term replacement.
Tony's debut was a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United and his last game was against Sunderland and ended with the same score. After losing his first team place he played 11 games for the reserves and in his final appearance lined up alongside Curtis as the skipper began his come-back from injury. It was a difficult time for the Sky Blues as they struggled to find their feet after promotion and injuries to key men Ian Gibson and Bobby Gould as well as Curtis didn't help the cause. There were 4-0 defeats at Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United and Tony struggled to hold the weakened team together. On top of this Hill was keen for a replacement to be appointed and maybe not fully focused on the issues.
Fellow defender Dietmar Bruck remembers Tony with affection: “George's injury was a big blow to us, it was like a death in the family. Tony came in and gave us some stability with his experience and cool defending. He was a lovely fellow but after Noel arrived he signed his former United mate Maurice Setters'.
Tony was born in Newstead a mining community in Nottinghamshire and was spotted as a 17-year-old by Leicester City playing for the local colliery team. He made great strides at Filbert Street and made his first team debut in a Second Division game at Stoke in February 1956 but was unable to cement a regular place until 1959 by which time Leicester were in the First Division. He was unfortunate to to find himself involved in a straight fight for the number 5 shirt with the equally proficient Ian King, and eventually to lose out after injury handed his rival the upper hand during the 1960-61 campaign. Already having represented the Football League against the Scottish League in march 1960, Tony found himself in a 14-man England squad early the next season when he couldn't even win back his place in Leicester's first team, and the term 'travelling reserve' for the national side took on a bleak irony for him. As King held down the pivotal role for Leicester's run to the 1961 FA Cup final, Tony turned down a £30,000 move to Chelsea, and then spent the summer weighing the relative options of bids from Liverpool and Southampton, joining the latter for a Saints' club record fee of £27,500. I all he made 92 appearances for Leicester.
Tony spent six seasons at the Dell and was a member of a team renowned for exciting attacking football under manager Ted Bates. Tony brought an elegance and class not often seen in his position and missed only a handful of games in that time. He was a key player in the club's 1963 FA Cup run where they reached the semi-final only to lose narrowly to Manchester United, victors over Coventry in the quarter-final. The team finished fifth in Division Two in 1963-64 and fourth the following campaign before, under Tony's captaincy, winning promotion in 1965-66, pipping the Sky Blues at the post. The Saints had reached the top flight for the first time.
Dietmar remembers facing Tony's Southampton team that season: 'We beat them 5-1 at Highfield Road early in the season. I scored a screamer from 25 yards but George Hudson got all the headlines when he scored his famous goal. It was Tony that he bamboozled with his cheeky flick before heading the goal'.
Thanks to Ron Davies's 37 goals Southampton survived in the First Division but they had conceded 92 goals and manager Bates signed Everton's Jimmy Gabriel signalling Tony's end at the Dell after 260 first team games.
After being released by Coventry in March 1968 Tony spent that summer in the USA with Los Angeles Wolves before re-emerging in England in 1969 briefly with Bristol City and then Tranmere Rovers where he made 42 appearances.
His first foray into management was at Southern League Poole Town as player-manager in 1971 but it was abroad that he would make his biggest impact, managing the Icelandic national side in two spells (1974-77 and 1984-85) as well as four leading Norwegian clubs (Viking Stavanger, Fredrikstad, Vidar Stavanger and Brann Bergen) and several lower division clubs. In retirement he lived in Stavanger with his wife Kirsti, children Christian and Charlotte and grandchildren Pernille and Adrian.
RIP Tony
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