Former Hereford United striker Andy Williams has left Cheltenham after two seasons with the Robins.
He has spoken to Jon Palmer about his career.
In particular he mentions his time with Hereford. Just 17, Graham Turner offered him a contract with a wage of £50 per week.
"We got the play-offs that year and I ended up turning fully professional then and it was a great experience for me and I had to quickly learn about football banter,"said Williams.
“I had to do all the odd jobs around the place, but I loved it even though I ended up being the ‘spare man’ in the squad and missing out on a place on the bench.”
It wasn't all plain sailing as he was fined two weeks wages after missing the team coach.
"That was a big eye opener and I learned there was no hiding place in football and I remember the lads hammering me!”
He started to play more often in his second season.
"We had a really good season after losing in the play-offs in the previous two years.
"I had a brief appearance in the league cup the year before, but my first league game was away to Accrington away. I came off the bench and thankfully I hit the ground running, scored on my full debut and ended up as top scorer with 13 as we went up, which was a great experience."
At the time Stuart Fleetwood and Adam Stansfield were the other two strikers at Edgar Street.
"We had a team of hungry lads trying to get into the Football League and I learned from those two that you can contribute far more than goals to the team as a striker and that helped me for the rest of my career."
The Bulls won the Conference play-offs and faced Halifax in the final at Leicester.
"Me and Sam Gwynne were the two local lads involved and I remember telling him to soak it all in because promotions don’t come around that often.
"We had 15-20,000 fans there and I probably knew most of them!"
It wasn't long before scouts were taking a look at Williams and mid-day through Hereford's first season back in the league, Bristol Rovers made an offer for him.
"I knew it was a massive club from when we played there in the FA Cup that season and they had about 10,000 all singing Goodnight Irene.
"I was offered the chance to treble my wages, but they were near the bottom at the time and I didn’t want to risk dropping out of the Football League and Hereford were mid-table and doing all right.
“I was all about trying to get to the top level rather than chasing the money, but as it transpired Rovers had a good run and finished above us and went up in the play-offs!”
At the end of the season he left Hereford and joined Bristol Rovers.
"I got a house near where the new training facility was going to be, but we were training at an Army barracks in Colerne near Bath, where we were greeted every morning by a soldier with a gun in his hand and I remember it always seemed to be snowing there, whatever the weather was like everywhere else!
"It was an eye-opener for me because I’d left home for the first time and gone into a much more senior group than I was used to, but I still had belief in myself and my ambitions."
Read more at: https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-bristol-rovers-swindon-town-7060082