Tony Adcock

Anthony Charles Adcock (born 27 March 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Colchester United, where he holds the goalscoring record with 149 goals in all competitions for the club in two spells. Adcock also played for Manchester City, Northampton Town in two stints, Bradford City, Peterborough United and Luton Town. He scored 249 goals in just over 700 appearances throughout his career.

Tony Adcock
Personal information
Full name Anthony Charles Adcock[1]
Date of birth (1963-03-27) 27 March 1963[2]
Place of birth Bethnal Green, London, England[1]
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2][3]
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Colchester United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1987 Colchester United 210 (98)
1987–1988 Manchester City 15 (5)
1988–1989 Northampton Town 72 (30)
1989–1991 Bradford City 38 (6)
1991–1992 Northampton Town 35 (10)
1992–1994 Peterborough United 111 (35)
1994–1995 Luton Town 2 (0)
1995–1999 Colchester United 108 (28)
1999 → Heybridge Swifts (loan)
1999–2000 Heybridge Swifts
Total 591 (212)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Born in Bethnal Green, London, Adcock began his career at Colchester United, where at the age of 18 years, he made his Football League debut on 2 May 1981 in the final game of the season, a 1–0 win over Carlisle United at Layer Road.[4] He opened his goalscoring account in only his third league start with a brace in a 3–0 home victory against Torquay United on 18 September 1981.[5]

Adcock became a prolific scorer for Colchester, and established himself in the first-team squad following the death of John Lyons and the departure of Kevin Bremner. In the 1984–85 season, having scored 17 goals and 26 goals in the previous two seasons respectively, Adcock was on course to break the club's seasonal and overall scoring records, having scored 24 league goals in just 27 games up until January 1985. However, after scoring a hat-trick against Chesterfield, he suffered a knee injury in training that kept him out for the remainder of the season. This was particularly unfortunate for Adcock as it had been rumoured that Liverpool were on the verge of making an offer for him. On his return from injury, he remained with the club for two further seasons, scoring 15 and 11 goals as he played his last game for the club on 17 May 1987, a play-off second leg against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, a game which the U's drew 0–0 but lost 2–0 on aggregate following a first-leg home defeat.[3][6] Until this point, Adcock had scored 98 league goals in 210 outings.[7][8][9]

After missing out on promotion with Colchester, Adcock finally got the chance to move to a bigger club when Manchester City picked him up for £75,000 in June 1987, but only made 15 appearances for City, scoring five goals, including being one of three players to score a hat-trick in a 10–1 thrashing of Huddersfield Town on 7 November 1987.[3][10]

In January 1988, Adcock was signed by Northampton Town in exchange for Trevor Morley[8] and the £85,000 fee was a record figure for the club at the time.[11] During his first spell at Northampton, he netted 30 goals in 72 league appearances, but when the Cobblers were relegated to the Fourth Division in the 1988–89 season, he secured a £190,000 move to Bradford City in October 1989.[2][3]

Having scored on his debut for after just 21 minutes for Bradford, he only managed a further five league goals for the club.[12] The Bantams were relegated to the Third Division and Northampton re-signed Adcock for £75,000 in January 1991.[3] The club's financial plight proved to be a blessing for Adcock as he scored 10 goals in 35 appearances, eventually being offloaded to Peterborough United in a £35,000 deal.[3]

Adcock opened his scoring account for the Posh on 11 January 1992, netting a brace in a 4–1 win over Fulham.[13] He scored 35 league goals in total for Peterborough in 111 appearances from 1992 to 1994, aiding the club to promotion to the newly restructured Division One via the play-offs in 1992.[14]

When Peterborough were relegated from the First Division, Adcock was sold to Luton Town for £20,000 in August 1994, where he could only manage two substitute appearances, before being persuaded to return to Colchester United by manager Steve Wignall. Adcock returned in the summer of 1994, and he bagged another 28 league goals, featuring for the club at Wembley Stadium twice in as many years, losing in the 1997 Football League Trophy final on penalties to Carlisle United, and gaining promotion to Division Two in the 1998 Football League Third Division play-off final win over Torquay.[3][15][16]

Adcock scored his last goal for the U's in an infamous FA Cup first round defeat by Bedlington Terriers, coming off the bench to score a consolation goal in the 88th minute of the 4–1 trouncing.[17] He wound down his career by featuring on loan for Heybridge Swifts before joining the club permanently following his release from Colchester in 1999.[3][9]

Adcock was inducted into the Colchester United 'Hall of Fame' in 2008. He was inducted during a ceremony following Colchester's final game at Layer Road prior to relocating to the Colchester Community Stadium.[9] In 2012, he received the same honour at Peterborough United.[18]

Honours

Club
Peterborough United
Colchester United

Individual
All honours referenced by:[14][15][16]

References
  1. "Colchester United – Player profile". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  2. "Tony Adcock – Football Stats – Soccer Base". Soccerbase. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  3. Whitehead, Jeff; Drury, Kevin (2008). The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-85983-629-3.
  4. "Colchester United – Match details – Colchester Utd 1–0 Carlisle United". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  5. "Colchester United – Match details – Colchester Utd 3–0 Torquay United". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  6. "Colchester United – Match details – Wolverhampton Wanderers 0–0 Colchester Utd". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  7. "TONY ADCOCK". Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  8. "Adcock, Tony – Footballers – Where Are They Now?". Where Are They Now?. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  9. "Adcock: U's have to keep it together". Colchester Gazette. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  10. "Classic matches at Maine Road". BBC Sport. 9 May 2003. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  11. "The history of the Cobblers". Northampton Town FC. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  12. "BfB: The best debuts in Bradford City history". Boy from Brazil. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  13. "Tony Adcock's Biography – UpThePosh! The Peterborough United Database". UpThePosh!. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  14. "Division Two (League One) Play-off Finalists". Coludaybyday. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  15. "Associate Members Cup Finalists". Coludaybyday. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  16. "Division Three (League Two) Play-off Finalists". Coludaybyday. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  17. "Colchester United – Match details – Bedlington Terriers 4–1 Colchester Utd". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  18. "Adcock Inducted into Hall of Fame". gboooo.com. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
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