Anthony Wallace Long Nicholas (16 April 1938 – 25 September 2005) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who scored 42 goals from 133 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

playing as an

inside forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

for Chelsea,

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

and

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

. He also played in the Southern League for Chelmsford City,

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

, Gravesend & Northfleet and

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

Football career

After spending time on the club's ground staff, Nicholas turned professional with

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

champions Chelsea in May 1955. He was capped by England at youth level: against a Denmark youth XI in October 1955, he scored three times in a 9–2 victory and, according to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

correspondent, "had a rare eye for the target and a left foot of great power". While stationed at

RAF High Wycombe Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed ...

during his

national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, Nicholas represented the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

football team, and helped his station to victory in the RAF Cup Final. He first played for Chelsea at 18, alongside

Peter Brabrook Peter Brabrook (8 November 1937 – 10 December 2016) was an English footballer who made nearly 500 appearances in the Football League playing for Chelsea, West Ham United and Orient, and was capped three times for the England national team. H ...

, Ron Tindall,

Les Allen Leslie William Allen (born 4 September 1937) is an English former football player and manager who played as an inside forward. Playing career Allen started his playing career at amateur club Briggs Sports where he helped them to reach the s ...

and

Frank Blunstone Frank Blunstone (born 17 October 1934) is an English former footballer who played as an outside left for Crewe Alexandra, Chelsea and the England national team. Playing career After surprisingly rejecting Wolverhampton Wanderers in favour of ...

in a forward line with an average age of under 20. He played and scored in Chelsea's first appearance in European competition, against a

Copenhagen XI Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in the first round of the 1958–60 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Although he scored regularly for Chelsea, he fell out with manager

Ted Drake Edward Joseph Drake (16 August 1912 – 30 May 1995) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as well ...

, and joined

in 1960 for a club record £15,000 fee. He was Brighton's top scorer in the League in 1960–61, with 13 goals from 27 appearances, and his four goals in the last two games of the season made sure the club avoided relegation. He was Brighton's joint-top scorer, alongside Johnny Goodchild and Bobby Laverick, with 10 goals in all competitions, as the team failed to avoid relegation the following year. In Chris Westcott's book ''Upfront with Chelsea'', Nicholas recalled how his request for a wage increase, when the first-team players were on £20 a week, was turned down, and he went on to leave the Football League, aged just 24, for a wage of £28 a week at Southern League club Chelmsford City. After a brief return to the Football League with

in the 1965–66 season, Nicholas returned to

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

with

, with whom he won a Southern League Premier Division and Cup double in the 1968–69 season, Dartford again, Gravesend & Northfleet and

. He retired from professional football in 1973, but played for Great Baddow in the

Essex Olympian League The Essex Olympian Football League is a football competition based in England, founded in the 1966–67 season. It has a total of six senior divisions and one under 21 division. The Premier Division sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National ...

in the 1977–78 season.

Personal life

Nicholas was born in

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, in 1938. While still playing football, he trained as a

cabinet-maker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a Bathroom cabinet, medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically mad ...

and opened a DIY shop in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

. This developed into a successful interior design business which he passed on to sons Tony and Kevin. He and wife Darlene were keen golfers. In later life, Nicholas was treated for

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. He died in a London hospital in September 2005 at the age of 67.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Tony 1938 births 2005 deaths Footballers from the London Borough of Newham People from West Ham English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Chelsea F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Dartford F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Ebbsfleet United F.C. players Folkestone F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen