Former Hereford United player Neil Grayson has sadly been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and Dementia.
His all-action style was much loved by football fans across the country. Often described as “hard as nails” his abrasive “no nonsense” attitude resulted in many bruising encounters, and yet the quality of many of his goals belied his public persona.
Grayson now aged 61 signed for Hereford United from Northampton Town in July 1997 and scored 16 goals for the club including a famous double against Brighton in the 2-1 FA Cup 1st round win that season.
Due to a financial crisis at Edgar Street Grayson was sold to Cheltenham Town in February 1998, at the time Bulls manager Graham Turner said “It was down to pure financial desperation that we had to sell Neil, we needed funds urgently and it was absolutely vital for the short term survival of the club to sell a player, we had a shortfall in gate receipts recently and we had the wages and a tax bill to pay. You don’t mess about with the taxman”
Grayson was still playing and scoring at National League level for Stafford Rangers in 2008 at the age of 43, and carried on playing in the lower end of the pyramid until he was 50.
Grayson was special guest on Saturday when Cheltenham played Colchester and the game was stopped in the 9th minute for a one minute applause. A just giving page has been setup to help support Grayson and you can donate below.
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