Friday 14 May 2010

7. Neville Hamilton


Position : Midfield

Played : 1981-2 to 1983-4

Appearances : 74

Goals : 5


One of the sadder stories to tell, Neville came to us from Mansfield in the summer of 1981 having begun his career at Leicester with whom he made his League debut at Old Trafford. It took him a while to get into the first team ahead of Dave Esser and Terry Dolan but he had won his place by the time of my first game.



A diminutive. hard working midfield player who tackled well, Nev’s great weakness was a chronic inability to pass the ball forwards. Not surprisingly he didn’t get many goals either. He was released by caretaker boss Les Chapman after Shaun Reid had emerged on the scene.



He got a great chance to revive his career when Tommy Docherty signed him for Wolves, then newly relegated to the Third Division, but just before the new season started he suffered a heart attack in training. Docherty is rumoured to have ordered the removal of his boots before the ambulance arrived. He had to retire but went on to be a coach with Leicester. He died of heart failure in February 2009 aged 48.

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