Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Pre-Season

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Willo opens up about Edgar Street future and why he's frustrated the season is over

Andy Williams as opened up about his future at Edgar Street
Hereford striker Andy Williams has suggested he'd like to stay with the club for at least another season - but the money has to be right so he can pay his mortgage.

Having started his career at Edgar Street under Graham Turner, Willo returned last summer having left League Two Walsall after 17 seasons in the Football League.

But his return almost immediately hit problems as a knee injury in pre-season kept him out until December 23 - a lengthy spell which he said would've been shorter had he had the benefit of full-time medical care.

But he feels he has shown his worth in the second half of the season and has opened up about his Edgar Street future and said it was frustrating so much emphasis is put on age despite his fitness levels being unchanged in the last six years.

On his future, Willo said he has been talking to Caddis but "it's not ideal at the moment".

"Hopefully, we can get somewhere that means I can pay my mortgage. We started talking, I'm desperate to play on, I know physically it's not a question for me.

"People just put too much on the emphasis of age at this sort of level but, well at every level of football it's frustrating really, that's probably why I'm here anyway.

"My running stats haven't changed for the last five, six years, I've been monitoring it and I know that I'm as fit as I've ever been and in any other the walk of life where you have 20 years of professional experience you wouldn't be treated in a negative way.

"It's just the way football goes sometimes so I understand that, I'm not naive to that fact but I know what my worth is and as much as I love this club and want to be here, it's got to be right for everyone."

After making his 23rd appearance of the season on Saturday in the 2-0 defeat against Boston, the 37-year-old said it was frustrating for the season to end because he felt like he was just starting to get going. He has also had to adapt to working full-time and playing part-time, meaning he's doing fitness work at 6am or 9pm.

Willo said: "It's a bit of a weird feeling today. Obviously, we've got a lot of pride in that dressing room, no one likes losing and that's not the way you want to celebrate what has been a really good season for us.

"I think the gaffer hit the nail on the head from where we were before, where we were at the start of the season with a totally new group. I think we've installed a bit of belief in this city and hopefully we can build on that and keep the group together and have a better bash at it next year."

After saying Hereford are doing all they can to "make it a proper club again", he said: "We've still got a bit of building to do, we're not the next step up.

"This is probably the trickiest step in the football pyramid you're going from technically part-time at this level, some teams are full-time, but to the next level up most teams are full-time so you know it's that tricky transition period for us.

"We've got to build something that's close enough that we could go both ways really but I think credit to the gaffer (Paul Caddis) and Roons (Adam Rooney) and the people behind the scenes, they're from professional clubs and they know how it should be run and the standards that we've got to drive every day.

"That's why I pride myself on, that's why I've had a lot of promotions in the last stages of my career as I realised the way to win and the way to be consistent throughout the season.

"Hopefully I'll be given the opportunity to do that again next year."