Tony Waddington

Tony Waddington

Anthony "Tony" Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City.

Waddington had a seven year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progressed to assistant manager to Frank Taylor and took his position in June 1960. He set about staving off the threat of relegation before bringing back club legend Stanley Matthews in an effort to rekindle the club's supporter base. It worked well and he had enough money to bring in a number of established veterans as Stoke took the Football League Second Division title in 1962–63 and reached the 1964 Football League Cup Final, losing out to Leicester City.

More fine signings followed as Stoke enjoyed great success at the beginning of the 1970s reaching two FA Cup semi-finals, playing in the UEFA Cup twice and winning their first major trophy, the Football League Cup in 1972. Stoke then nearly won the First Division in 1974–75 but after the Butler Street Stand roof fell of in a strong storm at the Victoria Ground Stoke had to sell their best players to cover the repair costs and a despondent Waddington quit in March 1977 with Stoke heading for relegation. He later had a two year spell at Crewe Alexandra before becoming associate director of Stoke in 1991 until his death in 1994.