Fans chant there is only one Zamora but Tim Herbert travelled thousands of miles across the Atlantic to find another.

But Brighton and Albion Hove Albion's star striker Bobby is unlikely to be put in the shade by his namesake - a tiny town in deepest California.

Dedicated Albion fan Tim visited the town while holidaying with his girlfriend Caroline Meaby.

A journalist from Forest Gate, London, Tim, 29, was enjoying a ten-day break in San Francisco, when he spotted the town on a map.

He said: "We decided to hire a car and drive up to the north of California to see the scenery.

"I was looking at the map in our hotel room and there was this tiny dot in the middle of nowhere. Being an Albion fan I had to go.

Tim, who has a tattoo of the former Albion crest on his arm, jumped into his hire car with Caroline and headed out to the wilderness.

When they reached Zamora, they quickly realised the town did not have the striker's star quality.

Tim said: "It was very embarrassing. I was in the car parked at a petrol station changing into my Albion top in this town which only has about 80 people in it, a petrol station and a church."

"Everyone was just staring. They didn't say anything. I just wanted to get the pictures and get out of there."

Caroline snapped shots of Tim with the town's road sign before heading back to their hotel on the 150-mile round trip.

Tim said: "The Albion are an addiction. My local team is Leyton Orient but the Seagulls are my club.

"The first game I ever went to was in about 1982, Brighton against Liverpool."

He was so sure they would win the Division Two championship he bet £20, at odds of 25-1, on them taking the title.

But he said he has no plans to use the money to visit another Zamora - in Spain - unless he finds himself passing close by again.