Tony Parks

For the Blackburn Rovers footballer and caretaker-manager, see Tony Parkes.

Anthony Parks (born 28 January 1963) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career spanning over 20 years, he was on the books of 15 different clubs, making more than 250 league appearances and won the 1983–84 UEFA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur.^[3][2] After retiring as a player he had two spells as joint caretaker manager of Halifax Town.^[4][5]

Tony Parks

Personal information
Full name	Anthony Parks[1]
Date of birth	(1963-01-28) 28 January 1963 (age 61)
Place of birth	Hackney, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Tottenham Hotspur
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1980–1988	Tottenham Hotspur	37	(0)
1986	→ Oxford United (loan)	5	(0)
1987	→ Gillingham (loan)	2	(0)
1988–1990	Brentford	71	(0)
1990	→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)	0	(0)
1990–1991	Fulham	2	(0)
1991–1992	West Ham United	6	(0)
1992	Stoke City	2	(0)
1992–1996	Falkirk	112	(0)
1996–1997	Blackpool	0	(0)
1997–1998	Burnley	0	(0)
1998	→ Doncaster Rovers (loan)	6	(0)
1998–1999	Barrow
1999	Scarborough	15	(0)
1999–2002	Halifax Town	6	(0)
Managerial career
2000	Halifax Town (caretaker manager)
2001	Halifax Town (caretaker manager)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Parks was born in Hackney, London, and began his football career with Tottenham Hotspur.^[3] Though never a first-team regular, he was on the winning side in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final, in which he saved the final penalty from Anderlecht's Arnór Guðjohnsen in the penalty shootout.^[6] While still at Tottenham he had loan spells at fellow First Division club Oxford United and third-tier Gillingham.

Following his departure from Spurs in 1988 he signed for Third Division side Brentford, for whom he played 71 league games. In the 1990–91 season he was loaned to Queens Park Rangers in the First Division and subsequently joined third-tier side Fulham. Spells at West Ham United and Stoke City followed before he started a four-season spell at Scottish side Falkirk. After leaving them in 1996, his career concluded with spells at Blackpool, Burnley, Doncaster Rovers, Barrow, Scarborough and Halifax Town.^[2]

After his playing career ended, Parks went on to work as a goalkeeping coach. He held roles at several clubs and also worked with the England youth teams for the Football Association.^[6] In November 2008, he returned to Tottenham, succeeding Hans Leitert as goalkeeping coach.^[7]

In June 2016, Parks was released from his position of goalkeeping coach by Aston Villa.^[8] Prior to the 2018–19 season, Parks was employed as Head of Academy Goalkeeping at Watford.^[9] However, he left the club in September 2018 to set up "Tony Parks Goalkeeping" offering private coaching and Coach Education.

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Tottenham Hotspur	1981–82[10]	First Division	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	1982–83[10]		1	0	0	0	0	0	1[a]	0	2	0
	1983–84[10]		16	0	3	0	0	0	5[b]	0	24	0
	1984–85[10]		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	1985–86[10]		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	1986–87[10]		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	1987–88[10]		16	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	19	0
	Total		37	0	5	0	1	0	6	0	49	0
Oxford United (loan)	1986–87[2]	First Division	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Gillingham (loan)	1987–88[2]	Third Division	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Brentford	1988–89[11]	Third Division	33	0	7	0	3	0	2[c]	0	45	0
	1989–90[11]		37	0	1	0	4	0	3[c]	0	45	0
	1990–91[12]		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Total		71	0	8	0	7	0	5	0	91	0
Queens Park Rangers (loan)	1990–91[2]	First Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fulham	1990–91[2]	Third Division	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
West Ham United	1991–92[2]	First Division	6	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
Stoke City	1992–93[2]	Second Division	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	0
Blackpool	1996–97[13]	Second Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burnley	1997–98[14]	Second Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	1998–99[15]	Second Division	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
	Total		0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
Doncaster Rovers (loan)	1997–98[14]	Third Division	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Scarborough	1998–99[15]	Third Division	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
Halifax Town	1999–2000[16]	Third Division	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	3	0
	2000–01[17]	Third Division	5	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	6	0
	Total		6	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	9	0
Career total			152	0	16	0	14	0	11	0	193	0

1. Appearance in European Cup Winners' Cup
2. Appearance in UEFA Cup
3. Appearances in Football League Trophy

Honours

Club

Tottenham Hotspur;

• UEFA Cup: 1983–84^[10]

Falkirk

• Scottish Challenge Cup: 1993–94^[18]

References

1. "Tony Parks". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
2. Tony Parks at Soccerbase
3. Tony Parks at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
4. Nixon, Alan (4 October 2000). "Bracewell given task of rescuing Halifax". The Independent. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
5. Wilson, Scott (3 April 2002). "Halifax count cost of Bracewell's exit". The Independent. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
6. Staves, Russell (11 October 2007). "Parks' life". The Football Association. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
7. "Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp appoints Tony Parks to help Heurelho Gomes". The Daily Telegraph. 21 November 2009. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
8. "Eric Black leaves Aston Villa with goalkeeping coach Tony Parks". Sky Sports. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
9. "Sarll: "I'm Eager To Get My Teeth Into It"". Watford F.C. 7 August 2018. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
10. "Tony Parks". 11v11.com. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
11. Croxford, Mark; Lane, David; Waterman, Greville (2011). The Big Brentford Book of the Eighties. Sunbury, Middlesex: Legends Publishing. pp. 430–431. ISBN 978-1906796716.
12. Croxford, Mark; Lane, David; Waterman, Greville (2013). The Big Brentford Book Of The Nineties. Sunbury, Middlesex: Legends Publishing. p. 476. ISBN 9781906796723.
13. "Games played by Tony Parks in 1996/1997". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
14. "Games played by Tony Parks in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
15. "Games played by Tony Parks in 1998/1999". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
16. "Games played by Tony Parks in 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
17. "Games played by Tony Parks in 2000/2001". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
18. McKinney, David (13 December 1993). "Football: Falkirk find their fire". The Independent. London. Retrieved 21 March 2015.

External links

• Tony Parks at tottenhamhotspur.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 13 August 2013)
• Tony Parks at Soccerbase
• Tony Parks at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database