Obituary: Former Halifax, Aston Villa and Southampton defender Chris Nicholl dies aged 77

A commanding and uncompromising centre-half, Nicholl enjoyed almost unparalleled success with every club he played for, a rising star of Halifax Town’s promotion-winning side of 1968-69 who went on to appear in a World Cup finals tournament.

Born in Wilmslow in October 1946, Nicholl’s rise to stardom was all the more surprising given that he was rejected by First Division Burnley, where, despite standing 6 feet 2 inches tall, he was a small fish in a big pool.

Nicholl had represented Macclesfield Schools and Handsworth Boys’ Club before joining the Clarets as an apprentice in June 1963.

He turned professional in April 1965 but failed to break into the first team and was allowed to leave at the end of the 1965-66 season.

He was thus plying his trade with Witton Albion in the Cheshire County League when Town boss Alan Ball Snr resurrected his career, taking the player initially on trial in June 1968.

Having made just four reserve team appearances, Nicholl was pressed into first team action for the match at Newport County on 14 September and became an automatic choice in the half-back line alongside John Pickering, having made his signing permanent that October, with Town paying Witton £1,250.

Nicholl made 39 league appearances in that momentous campaign and only a broken nose, sustained in the promotion-clinching victory over Rochdale in the penultimate match, ended the sequence.

Having scored three crucial goals throughout the course of the season, Nicholl also played in each game of Town’s epic FA Cup run which saw them reach the fourth round and take top flight Stoke City to a replay.

Nicholl grew in stature, and the only surprise about his transfer to Luton Town in August 1969 was in the manner of it.

Nicholl’s performance in the 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road prompted Hatters boss Alec Stock to table an offer for the player immediately after the game, with the deal being completed the following day, Luton paying Halifax Town £30,000 for his services.

And a year after helping the Shaymen out of the Fourth Division, Nicholl helped Luton out of the Third as runners-up to Orient. Nicholl went on to make 97 league appearances and score six goals for the Hatters before making a £75,000 move to Aston Villa in March 1972, replacing the ageing George Curtis at centre-half and playing thirteen games in Villa’s Third Division title run-in.

Three seasons later, Nicholl missed only one game as Villa returned to the First Division behind Manchester United.

Made skipper by manager Ron Saunders, it was Nicholl who had the honour of lifting the League Cup in April 1977 after a second replay over Everton, a game in which he scored an amazing forty-yard goal.

It was Nicholl’s second success in the competition, for in 1973 he had been part of the Villa side which defeated Norwich City 1-0 at Wembley.

Famed for scoring four goals in a 2-2 draw with Leicester in March 1976, Nicholl went on to make 210 League appearances for Villa as well as winning the first of 51 international caps for Northern Ireland.

But it was as a Southampton player, whom he joined in June 1977, that he appeared in the finals of the World Cup in Spain in 1982, part of the heroic side which reached the second stages having defeated the host nation in the first round group stage.

With the Saints, Nicholl featured in Lawrie McMenemy’s exciting side – it featured the likes of Mick Channon, Alan Ball and Kevin Keegan – which finished runners-up to league champions Liverpool in 1981-82, and to Nottingham Forest in the final of the League Cup in March 1979.

In total, Nicholl made 228 league appearances for the Saints before becoming player-assistant manager to Dave Booth at Grimsby Town in August 1983, playing for two seasons and taking his career tally oflLeague appearances to 647, scoring 28 goals.

Nicholl returned to Southampton when he took over from McMenemy in July 1985, only the club’s third manager in thirty years.

He held the post for six years, keeping the Saints in the First Division and unluckily seeing his side defeated by Liverpool in the semi-finals of both FA Cup in 1984 and League Cup the following year, whilst among the players he gave debuts to were future internationals Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier.

Dismissed in May 1991, Nicholl returned to club management with Walsall, guiding them to promotion from Division Three at the first attempt in 1994-95.

After leaving in May 1997, he returned briefly as assistant to Ray Graydon in November 2001, having worked with Lawrie McMenemy coaching the Northern Ireland international side during the interim.

In later life, Nicholl was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and in September 2020 moved back to Southampton to receive care from his family.