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Saturday May 9th saw the 30-year reunion of the first football team from Bristol to walk out in a Wembley final and it was not Bristol City or Bristol Rovers.
In one of football's fairy tales, the village side of Almondsbury-Greenway captured the imagination of the city when they won a place in the 1979 final of the FA Vase and took a staggering 12,000 fans to the capital.Local football matches in and around Bristol were cancelled so Bristolians could travel to London and Bristol Rovers laid on their team bus for the amateurs from Almondsbury.
Even England manager Ron Greenwood swung by to shake the players' hands as they took to the pitch after walking to the stadium from their hotel at the end of Wembley Way.
And for Almonds' youngest player, 19-year-old Steve Price, every schoolboy's dream of scoring at Wembley came true.
"For me, if you ever score any, then Wembley's the place to do it," said the exuberant striker, now 50, talking to the Evening Post ahead of his team's reunion at the Bristol Golf Club.
"I remember running around the pitch with Andy Kerr after I scored. All I could hear was the Bristol lot. It was incredible."
Price's goal came in the fourth minute of the second half against Billericay, a semi-professional side in all but name, who had graced the final of the competition on a number of occasions and who were already two goals to the good.
Suddenly Almonds were back in the game and with a chance of the trophy.
"We almost got the equaliser," recalled Price, who now lives in Shirehampton, the proud father of seven children and four grandchildren and works for the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
"Both me and Kerr had good shots saved. We gave it a good go but we had a few injuries and it wasn't to be."
The final 4-1 scoreline flattered Billericay but didn't detract from the Almonds achievement. The staggering addition to the tale is that Price scored the following day for his other club, Penpole, and two of his colleagues also found the energy to turn out for local sides.
Reaching Wembley was far from a fluke. Almondsbury-Greenway was born from a controversial merger of Almondsbury FC, looking for better players, and Greenway Sports, then homeless and with an uncertain future. In the two years before the 1979 cup final appearance the new side had made the quarter-finals and, 12 months, later the semi-finals.
And in the year they finally reached the final they even overcame a 3-0 deficit against Farnborough in the earlier rounds.
Ken Robins, 65, who was secretary of the club at the time and a former player, said: "It was just the enormity of it all. We were purely amateurs in those days and to achieve what we achieved was almost unthinkable."
The team from the Gloucestershire County League had won the right to grace the greatest stage of English, if not world, football and deserved to celebrate that fact once more on Saturday.
In one of football's fairy tales, the village side of Almondsbury-Greenway captured the imagination of the city when they won a place in the 1979 final of the FA Vase and took a staggering 12,000 fans to the capital.Local football matches in and around Bristol were cancelled so Bristolians could travel to London and Bristol Rovers laid on their team bus for the amateurs from Almondsbury.
Even England manager Ron Greenwood swung by to shake the players' hands as they took to the pitch after walking to the stadium from their hotel at the end of Wembley Way.
And for Almonds' youngest player, 19-year-old Steve Price, every schoolboy's dream of scoring at Wembley came true.
"For me, if you ever score any, then Wembley's the place to do it," said the exuberant striker, now 50, talking to the Evening Post ahead of his team's reunion at the Bristol Golf Club.
"I remember running around the pitch with Andy Kerr after I scored. All I could hear was the Bristol lot. It was incredible."
Price's goal came in the fourth minute of the second half against Billericay, a semi-professional side in all but name, who had graced the final of the competition on a number of occasions and who were already two goals to the good.
Suddenly Almonds were back in the game and with a chance of the trophy.
"We almost got the equaliser," recalled Price, who now lives in Shirehampton, the proud father of seven children and four grandchildren and works for the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
"Both me and Kerr had good shots saved. We gave it a good go but we had a few injuries and it wasn't to be."
The final 4-1 scoreline flattered Billericay but didn't detract from the Almonds achievement. The staggering addition to the tale is that Price scored the following day for his other club, Penpole, and two of his colleagues also found the energy to turn out for local sides.
Reaching Wembley was far from a fluke. Almondsbury-Greenway was born from a controversial merger of Almondsbury FC, looking for better players, and Greenway Sports, then homeless and with an uncertain future. In the two years before the 1979 cup final appearance the new side had made the quarter-finals and, 12 months, later the semi-finals.
And in the year they finally reached the final they even overcame a 3-0 deficit against Farnborough in the earlier rounds.
Ken Robins, 65, who was secretary of the club at the time and a former player, said: "It was just the enormity of it all. We were purely amateurs in those days and to achieve what we achieved was almost unthinkable."
The team from the Gloucestershire County League had won the right to grace the greatest stage of English, if not world, football and deserved to celebrate that fact once more on Saturday.
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