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Another ex player tracked down and cards signed.I wrote to Tony a couple of weeks ago and he returned them to me with a short note.
Tony Byrne-
After only one appearance for Millwall he was signed by Ted Bates for Southampton for £8,000 in August 1964. Although he made his Saints debut in an FA Cup tie against Crystal Palace in January 1965, Byrne took a long time to break into the Southampton first team, mainly because of a broken leg sustained in a reserve team match in April 1966. He eventually made his league debut on 18 April 1967 in front of a 54,921 crowd at Old Trafford as relegation-threatened Saints went down 3–0 to Manchester United.
His best season was 1969-70, in which he made 35 league appearances, playing in defence alongside Joe Kirkup and John McGrath, as Saints again fought to avoid relegation. He scored his first league goal in the final match of the season in a 1–1 draw against Derby County. Having given away Derby's 88th minute goal after a poor back-pass, Byrne quickly turned from villain to hero as he slotted in a bobbling ball in the 90th minute in a dramatic climax to the season.
He stayed at The Dell for ten years during which time he made a total of 114 first team appearances and won 14 Irish caps.
In August 1974 he moved to Hereford United to join former Saints' colleague Terry Paine for three seasons before finishing his career with Newport County.
Amazingly his Irish international debut in October 1969 in Dublin against Denmark was the first time he had kicked a ball in his native land because he had emigrated to London with his parents at the age of 12 and, until then, had played only hurling.
