TASTY ALMONDS

ROY HAMILTON TELLS JOHN LYONS ABOUT THE DAYS WHEN ALMONDSBURY GREENWAY BECAME A BIG FISH IN NON-LEAGUE WATERS...

- ROY HAMILTON

THEY were crazy times," chuckles Roy Hamilton, who played in goal for Almondsbury Greenway when they reached Wembley in the FA Vase final in 1979.

The Bristol upstarts, who didn't train and liked a pre-match pint, became, for a fleeting period, one of the most successful sides in Non-League football.

While a glut of Gloucestershire County League successes made them a team to be feared on the local scene, it was their exploits in the Vase that brought them to a national audience.

It followed the merger of Almondsbury and Greenway Sports in 1974. Almondsbury had the facilities and Greenway the players, so, in many ways it made perfect sense.

A run to the FA Vase quarter-finals in 1976-77 showed the potential and the following year they went a step further - overcoming a spot of controversy along the way.

In the last eight, the Almonds were drawn at home against Isthmian League side Burnham, who were favourites to beat them. There was consternation before the game as the visitors complained that the pitch was too short and it was, by fourand-a-half yards.

In the event, the referee asked both clubs if they wanted to play and Almondsbury ran out 2-0 victors with goals from John Shehean and Andy Kerr. However, the matter went to the FA, who ordered the match to be replayed at Burnham the following Saturday.

"When you turn up to play a game of football, you expect the pitch to be the right size and just go out and play," said Hamilton. "Who turns up at a match with a tape measure?

"We had been playing in the Vase for a year and a half and hadn't realised. The fact is that we were better than them and we were even more determined in the rearranged game to show it."