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Willo - Thanks and best wishes.
Today, I had the chance to catch up with Andy Williams while he was preparing for his early Monday morning drive to Bristol.
"So then young Williams, off to the bright lights of Bristol in the first move of your career?"
"Yes, first day of training on Monday but it's not really the first move, it goes back to when I was only eleven. I'd been playing for one of the successful Wellington youth teams in the village where my family live when I got the opportunity to join the Aston Villa's youth scheme." The group Andy was in included Luke Moore and Gary Cahill who are both still there. They also had Jamie Ward who later had a spell at Torquay and is now at Chesterfield plus Russell Penn and Gavin Hurren who are both at Kiddy Harriers. So out of the 16 or so that were together then, at least six of them are still in the game earning a living. Andy stayed at Villa until '98 and then after a couple of weeks at West Brom he signed schoolboy terms for Birmingham City's centre of excellence. At the time it was being run by Bob Latchford and he stayed there until 2001. "Unfortunately it was at a time when I wasn't growing so I sort of got left behind on the physical side." He then had a year over at Cheltenham before linking up with the HFA centre and then in early 2003, joined the Hereford scheme, which by then was being run in conjunction with Pershore College. "I remember scoring on my debut against Worcester City and during that year, Richard O'Kelly came to watch us on several occasions and in 2004 I was offered my first Pro contract at Hereford."
"Tell me a bit about your time at Edgar Street."
"It's got a lot of good memories....I made my first team debut here and, of course, the promotion game at Leicester will live with me for the rest of my life. For a local lad to run out in front of the support that day was amazing, the noise from the fans was superb. I'd got a goal and really didn't want to go off but Guy's contribution when he came on was immense and the celebrations afterwards were incredible. I could have stayed out on the pitch all night. There's no better feeling in football than scoring a goal and listening to the crowd's response....they really can make a difference."
"Will you miss Hereford?"
"Of course, it's my home but this new challenge is just too good an opportunity to miss. I've got to get down there and force my way into the side. Scoring goals is what I enjoy, playing football is what I've always wanted to do and this is a chance to do it at a higher level. I still hope to get back to watch The Bulls occasionally and of course, will still have a lot of mates to keep in touch with up here. Hereford gave me my big break and I'll always be grateful for that and for the support from the fans. You can never be sure of anything in football but, who knows, I wouldn't rule out ending up back here some time in the future and maybe in a higher league. I certainly wish Graham Turner and everyone at Edgar Street all the best and thank them for my time there. You can be sure it will be the first result I'll look for after my game."
Andrew, I think it's safe to say you go with all our best wishes for success and by the way, you're a far better player than your old man ever was!
