Tony Taylor (footballer)

For other people named Tony Taylor, see Tony Taylor (disambiguation).
Tony Taylor
Personal information
Full name Anthony Taylor[1]
Date of birth (1946-09-06) 6 September 1946
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position Left back
Youth career
Barrhead Thistle F.C.
1962–1964 Kilmarnock
1964–1967 Celtic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1968 Morton 22 (8)
1968–1974 Crystal Palace 195 (8)
1974–1976 Southend United 56 (1)
1975–1976 → Hamilton Academical (loan) 8 (2)
1976–1977 Swindon Town 26 (0)
1977 Bristol Rovers 12 (0)
1977–1978 Portsmouth 17 (0)
1978–1979 Kilmarnock 2 (0)
1979 Albion Rovers 3 (0)
1979–1980 Northampton Town 4 (0)
1980 Panhellenic Toronto
Totals 345 (19)
Teams managed
1988–1989 Canada

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Anthony (Tony) Taylor (born 6 September 1946 in Glasgow) is a former professional footballer, who made 345 appearances in the Scottish League and Football League playing mainly as a left back. Taylor began his career at Kilmarnock in 1962 before moving to Celtic from 1964 to 1967. However he did not make a first team appearance for either club.

Crystal Palace

In 1967 he signed for Morton making 22 appearances before signing for Crystal Palace on 31 October 1968.[1] Taylor played in 195 league games for Crystal Palace between then and 1974, scoring 8 goals. It was during this period that he was converted from a winger to left back.[2] His debut came on 9 November 1968 in a 2–0 away win against Oxford United and Taylor was ever present for the remainder of that season (25 appearances) which saw Palace reach the top tier for the first time.[3] In Crystal Palace's subsequent four seasons in the top flight, Taylor made 30, 36, 41 and 40 appearances respectively.[4]

Subsequent career

Crystal Palace were relegated in 1973 but Taylor was Player of the Year and remained thereafter making 20 appearances in the 1973–74 season[5] before being transferred to Southend United in August 1974,[1] where he made 56 appearances over 2 seasons. He then saw out his career with spells at, Swindon Town, Bristol Rovers, Portsmouth, Kilmarnock, Albion Rovers and Northampton Town.

Taylor agreed to take over as player/manager of Athlone Town A.F.C. in August 1977 but despite playing some pre season friendlies resigned before the 1977-78 League of Ireland season commenced.

In 1980 he moved to Canada and played for Panhellenic, a Greek team in the National Soccer League, a semi-pro Toronto league. The high point with this team was playing in a tournament against Benfica, Toronto Italia and Partizan Belgrade.

After working as an assistant coach with Celtic, Taylor became coach of Canada's national boy's youth team in the 1980s. He also served as the (senior) national team manager during an unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals.

Taylor is a Technical Staff Member of the Burlington Youth Soccer Club in Burlington, Ontario.

  1. 1 2 3 Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 342. ISBN 0907969542.
  2. ↑ Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 90. ISBN 0907969542.
  3. ↑ Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 231. ISBN 0907969542.
  4. ↑ Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. pp. 233–239. ISBN 0907969542.
  5. ↑ Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 241. ISBN 0907969542.
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