Tributes have been paid to Thanet football coach Colin Hill, who died last week.

Mr Hill died after a short illness on Tuesday last week after spending three weeks in hospital.

He was born in 1943 in Small Heath, Birmingham, and signed for Aston Villa FC when he was 14.

The headmaster at his school was an Aston Villa fan and he was the only boy in the school to be allowed out of lessons to go to football practice and matches.

However, he was released by Aston Villa at the age of 18 due to knee injuries.

Between the ages of 16 and 18 Mr Hill attended Moseley Art College in Birmingham, where he was in the same class as musician Denny Laine from the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings.

Mr Hill moved to Margate in 1961 with his parents after meeting his future wife Jeanette. After marrying the couple had two sons, Paul and Gavin.

Mr Hill briefly played a couple of seasons for Birchington Albion before hanging up his boots due to another knee injury.

He played darts for many years locally, including at Super League level, but he was best known across Thanet for his dedication to coaching young footballers.

Members of the footballing community paid tribute to Mr Hill’s work with hundreds of footballers, both children and adults, on his son Gavin’s Facebook page.

These included Darren Lewis, who wrote: “I believed in you, the same way you believed in me, that’s what made you a special man, so sad to hear you have been taken from us.”

Steve Winch, from Margate FC, wrote: “What a legend, will be sadly missed, great sense of humour, heaven will be a better place.”

Mr Hill’s son Paul said: “He managed several teams and helped many other clubs and teams with training sessions every week. From 1981 Mr Hill helped Peter Donnelly run the Thanet United [now Margate FC] reserve team.

“While helping Mr Donnelly he started to run an under-11 team at Westgate Sports, which was the biggest youth organisation in the area.”

Players who Mr Hill trained that went on to play for Margate and Ramsgate included Bob Miles, Steve Miles, Neville Hemmings, Paul Meade, David Coles, John Mayall, John Munday, Mark Munday, Paul Lamb, Darryl Stacey and his own sons Paul and Gavin.

Successful

Paul Hill said: “He also taught Darren Lewis and Nicky Kerry, who were on the books at Millwall, and Lee Hook, who was at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“He started up Margate Athletic reserves to bring young players through to the first team.

“They were the most successful local Sunday team. The reserves went on to win back-to-back promotions and were also Kent Junior Trophy winners.

“He then helped out with training sessions for Ramsgate first and reserve teams for many years while training youth players at Westgate Sports, which later became Ramsgate Youth, and later helped Jim Ward at Ramsgate as well.”

n Mr Hill’s funeral will take place at Margate Crematorium on Thursday, February 13, from 3.20pm.