My Greatest Game: Tom Greaves and his ‘Roy of the Rovers’ promotion-winning goal for Bradford (Park Avenue) against FC United

Tom Greaves is regarded as one of the greatest and most popular strikers of Bradford (Park Avenue)’s reformed history.

Greaves scored the fairytale last minute of extra-time winner against FC United of Manchester in the 2012 NPL Premier Division play-off final to send his home-town club back into the National North after seven years away. 

The moment, eight years after being given his first chance in the Avenue side at the age of 18 by former Leeds United forward Carl Shutt, is up there with the club’s all-time most iconic goals.

In the latest ‘My Greatest Game’, the Ossett United striker, who enjoyed further success as a player and then as a manager with FC United, reflects back specifically on his two memorable spells at Horsfall Stadium.

Greaves discusses the highs and lows under Shutt, Gary Brook and Phil Sharpe in his first stint and then Simon Collins and John Deacey in the second. He also admits that he would “love” to manage Avenue when his playing days end.

Bradford (Park Avenue) (Greaves 119) 1-0 FC United of Manchester – 6th May 2012

The Teams

Bradford (Park Avenue): Lamb, Clayton, Drury, Daly, Knowles (captain), Riley, A Davidson (O’Brien 17 (James 72), Hotte, Marshall, Deacey, N Boshell (Greaves 101).

FC United of Manchester: Worsnop, Jacobs (captain), Neville, Cottrell, Jones, Stones (Grimshaw 120), Rosa (Platt 71), Wolfenden, Norton, Stott, Johnson (Mulholland 71).

Attendance: 1,897

“100% it is one of the greatest moments of my life, certainly footballing-wise. I’ve had some great times with all the clubs I have been at like winning the league and the FA Cup runs with FC United, but you don’t win promotions every-day and you don’t win games like that so dramatically in the last couple of minutes. It was a Roy of the Rovers moment. After it finished I remember my dad coming over and he had tears in his eyes which set me off. It was a massively proud moment, especially with Avenue being my first semi-professional club. 

“We had a really good season and we had gone into the play-offs flying and we had finished up finishing fourth. We had been on a good run since Christmas and it gave us home advantage against Hednesford in the semi-final. I didn’t get on against Hednesford, and we had won 5-0. I had a few mates ring me and say ‘are you annoyed and frustrated that you didn’t get on’. I was like ‘no, I’ll just go and get the winner in the final’. The rest is history. 

“The FC United game was a frustrating one as well. I had to get on. I knew something was going to happen and I knew it was bubbling. (John) Deacey would tell this as well, but I literally warmed-up next to him for the whole game. I was up and ready to go. If someone had scored in normal time I wouldn’t have even got on the pitch, but I came on in the first half of extra-time and before I scored I had a couple of little sniffs. I hit one on the volley from outside the box that went wide. Then there was another one that went wide. For the goal Adam Clayton just whipped it across and I took it away from Ross Daly, who has never forgiven me since. I knew the ball was coming towards me as soon as Adam Clayton took that touch. I thought I’ve got to get it in the right area because if he put where he did it would be on a plate for me. I remember thinking that it was a little in front of me and I would have to slide in for it. Obviously I got enough on it to knock it past Spider (Jon Worsnop). 

“There was pandemonium in the ground. I didn’t know where to go. Ross Daly tried to grab hold of me and I gave him a big shove to get him out of my way. There’s a good picture of it. I thought ‘get behind the net’ and go towards where my friends and family normally stood. If you watch the video I think there’s seven or eight of my mates who run over and jump on me. Matt Dempsey who was on the bench got to me first and there must have been 200 people on the running track. There was still two minutes left as well which felt like a life-time. When the final whistle went and all the fans ran onto the pitch it was unbelievable. I’m still bouncing about the game now eight years on. 

“We had a very strong squad at the time with Lamby (John Lamb) in goal and very experienced. You felt comfortable with him. At the back you had people like Martin Drury, James Knowles, James Riley and Adam Clayton who were experienced and had played at higher levels. Then there was a midfield of Scobbie (Richard Marshall), Ross Daly, Robbie O’Brien, Nathan Hotte and Jordan Deacey. All the lads were close mates and you knew everybody had each other’s backs and would run through brick walls for each other. Everybody could play as well. Nicky Boshell came in and I remember him scoring a free kick on his debut. It was an unbelievable strike. People like Alex Davidson who was rapid and Michael Duckworth were around too. There was a strength everywhere. 

“I had come back to Avenue when Simon Collins was the manager (in the summer of 2010) nearly two years earlier. I actually bumped into Simon in the White Rose Centre when he’d just got the job and he asked me whether I’d come back because Bob (Blackburn) was keen. It was no-brainer because I’d have never left in the first place if I could have helped it. I always felt I had unfinished business with Avenue and I had loved playing for the club. But I was playing for Garforth and I had just scored 28 goals for and I was on a contract. Maria Bruce and her husband David really helped out with the transfer fee. She was the main reason I came back. I don’t know if that’s known to people at Avenue. She’s another reason why I didn’t want to leave Avenue the second time because I didn’t want to let her and David down.

“We didn’t start that season well and I felt sorry for Simon when he left and I text him to say that. Deacey came back and brought a few of his own boys in like Matty James and it just clicked. We went from strength-to-strength. We were always near the top of the league and we played in the FA Cup First Round twice, one being at Doncaster Rovers – all great memories.

“I first went up to Avenue around 2003 with the under 19s which I had heard about. It was Billy Bingham’s dad Bob who ran it with his mate whose name I can’t remember. Billy and Craig Midgley then ended up taking over and I really enjoyed playing under them. Midge was obviously an ex-pro and Billy had played at a decent level so they were two guys I really looked up to. They got me playing and scoring goals on a regular basis. It was the first time I had been properly coached. I played Junior Rugby a lot when I was a kid and it wasn’t until I was 13 that I started playing football for a team. I was a very late developer. I played for Eldwick Juniors and Nab Wood and then I went to Avenue for the under 19s with my friend Danny Garber who was a goalkeeper. I did alright and I scored on my debut and in my first season with the academy, I played for the reserves and I got a call-up for the first team as well. 

“My first game was on the bench against Halifax, but my first appearance was against Altrincham away from home. I was then on the bench a lot when Carl Shutt came in because the squad was fairly threadbare. They used to call the bench a cresch rather than a subs’ bench. They were literally all young lads like me, Paul Helliwell, James Pickles and James Russell. I was so proud to be involved in the first team and being able to walk round with the Avenue tracksuit on as a young lad at 17. I also started travelling with the squad to get used to the lads and surroundings of it. My first stint at Avenue was really all about the fans and volunteers. People like Ronnie, Mad Pete and his Nutty Boys who make me feel like a hero every-time I go up, George who used to sing, Gilbert, Primo, Steve Burnett, Alan Hirst, Kevin Hainsworth, the list goes on. Everybody used to go on the bus together and we used to have some right times and great laughs. There was some big names in that side at the time like Andy Quinn, Ryan Crossley, Dean Jones, Carl Serrant, Craig Smith, Danny Walsh.

“To have someone like Carl Shutt coming in as the manager because of the career he had was brilliant. He was someone to look up to because what he had done and being a Leeds fan it was great. I learnt a lot off him. We worked a lot on my runs and on areas in the penalty box to get into. In training we used to do a lot of shape and work on my runs in behind so after being with Midgley and Billy, Carl was one of my first coaches I worked under. He’s probably one of the managers I have learnt the most off because I was young and inexperienced at the time. I had only been playing for six or seven years at the time. 

“There was also Steve Oleksewycz who was an experienced Non League player at the time and I became close to him and I learnt a lot off him. It was enjoyable to play upfront with him. 

Clips of Tom Greaves and Avenue in action in the 2005/06 season (and 2004/05 against Southport)

“Carl left at the end of the Conference North season and it was the first time I had seen a manager leave. It was gutting to see him leave became he was the one who gave me a chance. Gary Brook came in and we started really well and we were fourth by the end of October.

“We played Farsley in the FA Cup and lost to a goal that should have been disallowed for handball, but two weeks later we played them in the league and won 4-3. I got the winner in the 96th minute. We got a free kick and Tom Agus had a mean left-foot and he struck it through the wall and it went low and I thought the goalkeeper is going to parry this into my path and he did. The place went nuts. We had people like Dean Calcutt, Liam Flynn, really good characters and the dressing room was buzzing like we had won the league. 

“We then beat Guiseley 3-0 and I scored two. I remember it absolutely banging down that night. So I scored a lot of goals early on and the club offered me a contract. I was absolutely made up. I wasn’t even bothered about discussing money. It was like ‘get me signed’. 

“But then we didn’t win for something like 23 games in the league. I don’t really know why it went wrong. We are talking about something which was a long time ago, but something wasn’t clicking. We didn’t have a bad squad. A few players came in, a few left, but not five or six at the same time. We seemed to have a different goalkeeper each week and that didn’t help. It was a strange season. One minute you’re thinking we could do something here and then we go 23 games without winning and we’re in a relegation battle. It was madness. When you first start playing football you don’t want relegations on your CV. It is heart-breaking for players and fans and it was horrible to be involved in. We couldn’t buy a win.

“Gary Brook got sacked and when you don’t win for 20-odd games it is coming. I liked Gary and Brian Crowther, but something had to change. It wasn’t working and we were staring relegation in the face. 

“Phil Sharpe was appointed and he was a no-nonsense Non League manager. He wanted us to change the way we played by going longer and in behind teams. He wasn’t interested in playing through the thirds like you would see nowadays. It was old school Non League football which can be effective and we needed to win games at the time. I got on really well with him and Clive Freeman. 

“They totally changed the team. We had Danny Trueman in goal, Lee Harper and Paul Robinson in defence. Andy Lee. Phil Rowlands. Martin Thacker in midfield, someone I played at Bridlington with. Neil Ross was upfront. These were heavy-duty Non League players for Avenue at the time and I really enjoyed playing with people like Liam Flynn, Dean Calcutt and Neil Ross. Dean Calcutt and Liam Flynn put so many balls into the box for me. I think they had a competition trying to see who could give me the most goals. Neil Ross was outstanding too.

“We ended the losing run against Runcorn who played their kids as they were going through a bad spell. We won 8-0 and I scored four and I think it was my first hat-trick for Avenue. We then beat Ossett Town on the Friday night and the two wins were massive. 

“We actually won a trophy in the President’s Cup which was my first trophy. We beat Ilkeston 1-0, but we lost Neil Ross to injury so he missed the last game at Radcliffe which we had to win to stay up. 

“The real damage had been done before Phil and Clive came in. It was an achievement in itself to take it to the final day. Managers leave and someone else picks up the pieces. 

“We literally had no players for that Radcliffe game. We had so many injuries. Who knows what would have happened if Rossy hadn’t got injured? It was heart-breaking when we lost to that last minute goal. All the Avenue fans were still chanting saying they were proud of us, but it was a horrible feeling. At the time the club felt like home. I had been there for a few seasons and I was gutted. 

“I didn’t play for the club much longer. I did start the following season, but I went on loan to Bridlington Town. I had scored a couple of goals, but I was on the bench a lot. Obviously when you are a young lad and you’re not scoring, managers like to play experience. Rossy was still there, but when Simon Parke signed and scored a hat-trick on his debut, chances were limited. I understood why I wasn’t playing.

“It was never ‘I want to leave because I’m not playing’, it was ‘can I go out on loan and show you what I can do’. I was happy to go out on loan. I absolutely loved it at Bridlington and stayed there for a year. I met Ash Berry who I still speak to. I actually scored one of my best ever goals on my debut for Brid. It was not a typical Tom Greaves goal because I picked the ball up on the halfway line, took a few players on and put it the bottom corner. 

“I’ve had some great times with other clubs playing football, but Avenue have been a big part of my life. I think I played 216 games for them so you don’t not have feelings if you have played that number of games for a club. I still watch the club when I can. I went up the other week. I would 100% like to manage them. I wouldn’t write that off. I would need to go out and get some experience managing first. When I took over at FC I was thrown in the deep end and I fully admitted that it was a step too far in my career. I still had a desire to carry on playing and scoring goals and I feel I have shown that to people since I have left with 50 or 60 goals. But I would love to go back to Avenue in that capacity one day. 

“I haven’t been put off management, I’m not like that. I learnt (from managing FC United) from it. I went through a hell of a lot in my short stint, probably more than managers who have managed for years. There was a lot of unexpected things. I didn’t expect my phone to go as much as it did. It was constant with your own players ringing all the time, agents ringing – Non League players having agents, it sounds mad. It consumed all my time. My family were getting affected, my little boy was getting affected and I looked at the bigger picture and it wasn’t worth it at that time in my life. That’s why I stepped back. We stayed up the year Karl Marginson left and I think Connor McCarthy scored the winning goal against York to keep us up and what a feeling that was. It was as good as winning leagues.

“I’m still playing at Ossett United and I’ve set myself a target of 300 career goals before I can consider retiring. I’m still including this season even though it is null and void and I think I’m on 279. So if I have a good season next season then I can consider retiring and playing into the dugout. I still feel I’ve got a few years left in me. I’ve played a lot of football this season because we had a lot of change at Ossett and we had a small squad. There were games where I should have been rested and ended up playing 90 minutes. It had a massive knock-on effect after Christmas as I lost a bit of form and didn’t score as much. I need to manage my body better. For getting through games I can. I can run as much as anybody, but I need to recover a bit better and maybe sit some games out.  

“I have massive feelings for everyone at FC United and Avenue. I loved my time with Ossett, Garforth, Brid, everybody I played for, but with FC United and Avenue I was with them for a long time. They say don’t fall in love with a football club, but I fell in love with two.

“With Avenue, It was the right time to leave the second time because after we got promoted I found myself on the bench again. I scored a few goals, but it was at the point where he (Deacey) was bringing other people instead of giving me a run. I found myself watching football rather than playing. It was hard leaving, but it was the right decision. I don’t regret anything.”

Tom Greaves was interviewed by James Grayson

FC United’s footage of the Play-off Final