Last Tuesday evening Hereford FC lost their pre-season friendly against Cheltenham 8-1.
It's the worst defeat for the 'new'club since it started six years ago.
However it's not the biggest defeat for a Hereford club.
Hereford historian Ron Parrott has told BN about an even bigger defeat.
'Incidentally, it’s our worst ever home defeat in a PSF and the second worst ever.
'The record is a 9-0 drubbing in an end-of-season friendly at Yeovil Town in May 1974.'
In a hard fought battle at Whaddon Road, two Manchester United loanees were on the scoresheet. Febian Brandy opening the scoring and Sam Hewson smashed home two second half free kicks.
Click to view -> Cheltenham Town 2-3 Hereford United (14th February 2009) - YouTube
The clubhouse bar will be open from 1pm and will also be open after the game, our Cafe will also be open from 1pm and fully stocked with food and drink for you to enjoy.
We accept all card payments in our cafe and bar,
A few pictures from last night's best forgotten friendly between Hereford and Cheltenham.
Hereford have provided an update about why three players are currently not playing for the club despite having signed.
The Bulls say that Miles Story and James Vincent will soon receive their international clearances to play again; however the transfer process for Ryan McLean 'has been slightly elongated' meaning that he cannot currently play.
In their statement, which can be found here, Hereford added that last night's game against Cheltenham 'saw another excellent turn out and atmosphere despite the weather and unfortunate outcome of being reduced to 10 men'.
Luke Haines was dismissed after just 11 minutes, with the Bulls going on to be hammered 8-1; former Hereford United striker Andy Williams netting a hat-trick in the tonking.
Hereford manager Josh Gowling bemoaned his side's 8-1 drubbing by Cheltenham in tonight's pre-season friendly, calling it 'probably the worse performance since I have been at the football club'.
Luke Haines' early sending off clearly did not help matters and many people would have felt that the correct decision would have been to substitute him instead especially as it was a friendly.
But Gowling said the officials had a job to do and was more concerned about his team's performance, saying they did not move the ball quickly for the first 20 minutes and had no pace out wide. Both Ryan McLean and Miles Storey were unavailable 'due to an admin error' while James Vincent was also not in the squad.
You can hear the full interview here.
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| Ben Pollock Watches As His Header Beats The Keeper |
As ever there are various ways to follow the progress of Hereford FC in their pre-season friendly against Cheltenham this evening.
Tickets for the game remain available and can be purchased online up to kick-off.
The ticket office will also be open.
For those unable to attend Radio Hereford FC will have full match commentary.
There's also Bulls Chat which is a chat/text service hosted by Ruth Walkden.
Hereford Goals will have clips of any goals.
And finally BN will have updates.
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| Andy Williams After Scoring For Hereford Against Bury In September 2006 - Andy Compton Picture |
Cheltenham striker Andy Williams is expected to start for the Robins when they travel to Edgar Street this evening in another pre-season friendly.
Wilo started his career with Hereford and made 74 appearances for the club before being sold to Bristol Rovers in July 2007.
One of his most important goals for Hereford came in the Conference Play-Off final in 2006.
Whilst with Bristol he was loaned out to Hereford for much of the 2008/9 season.
In May 2010 he joined Yeovil and two years later moved to Swindon. After a year he rejoined Yeovil on loan. However a serious cruciate injury curtailed his appearances.
In June 2015 Williams signed for Doncaster and then in June 2018 a move to Northampton.
Finally in July 2020 he joined Cheltenham on a one year deal which was recently extended for a second season.
If he starts he'll receive a warm welcome from Hereford supporters this evening.
A former Cheltenham player has been jailed for drug offences.
Kaid Mohamed will spend 28 months behind bars after police raided a house in Cardiff and found cocaine and money.
He told police the money was from playing football.
However in court it was said he had a gambling addiction and had turned to selling drugs to 'attempt to stem the flow of his finances going out'.
In December 2012 Mohamed scored a goal for Cheltenham in extra time at Edgar Street which put Hereford out of that season's FA Cup.
Hereford FC are looking for extra volunteers to help with the Junior Bulls especially on match days.
Lenell John-Lewis has suffered a torn calf whilst training at Grimsby. The former Hereford striker could miss the start of the season.
Max Harris is keeping goal for Stourbridge at present on loan from Cheltenham. He will feature against Solihull tomorrow evening. Originally with Hereford, Harris moved to Cheltenham from Oxford last summer.
Paul White, who kept goal for Hereford at the start of last season, has joined St Ives Town.
Gloucester City have signed 21 year old goalkeeper Liam Armstrong on a one year deal. He was with Bristol Rovers.
AFC Telford United have announced the signing of Nathan Pond who was with Fleetwood for 15 seasons before moving to AFC Fylde last season.
The Shropshire Star have posted pictures of five men the police would like to interview after trouble between Hereford and Shrewsbury fans outside Edgar Street last Tuesday.
Cheltenham Town are the visitors to Edgar Street tomorrow evening for Hereford's fifth pre-season friendly, kick-off 7.45pm.
They are expected to bring a strong squad especially given their friendly at Hungerford, also set for tomorrow evening, has been cancelled.
Last Saturday they beat Coventry City 2-0 with former Hereford United striker Andy Williams scoring both goals.
"It will be a really big test," said Hereford manager Josh Gowling.
"They won their league last year so their tails are up.
"We are going into a bit more minutes for the lads, we've got to start building the minutes up now to get to the point where we hit our peak when the season starts."
Tickets for the game are available online at: https://www.flowte.me/storefront/index.php?v=702
Or from the club shop from 10am to 4pm both today (Monday) and tomorrow.
Meanwhile Cinderford Town have expressed their thanks to all the Hereford supporters who travelled to the Causeway last Saturday.
A selection of pictures from the first half of this afternoon's friendly at Cinderford.
Cinderford’s ground The Causeway is set high on a hill above the town and has extensive glorious views over the Forest of Dean. The former banking which would have afforded classic views is now out of bounds and there are three varying stands on one side. The club was closely following Covid regulations ensuring everyone used the NHS app or gave their details. The crowd divided into two halves, those who were happy to be close to each other staying on the side near the bar and refreshments. The rest of the crowd socially distancing around the remaining three sides.
The weather had turned and was cool for July and overcast, the mobile ice cream van from Kelsmor Dairy, Garway Common was doing slow business. Cinderford had produced a team sheet with lots of Hereford players listed but the tannoy announced a team of trialists with just three named players. Several of the “anonymous” trialists have been named in the local press so it was a confusing state of affairs.
The team of trialists looked like a collection of individuals thrown together and for the first fifteen minutes Cinderford were on top moving the ball around comfortably whilst the Hereford team introduced themselves to each other. Gradually Hereford came into the game but at times the press failed as an individual decided to gamble on the ball breaking free for themselves, but this usually resulted in Cinderford escaping the press. Similarly, there were some optimistic shots when colleagues/rivals were better placed. Too many trialists makes for errors. Eventually the trialist approximating to Riyad Mahrez on the left wing got into the centre and released a nicely weighted pass for the trialist resembling Kevin Campbell to break into the box and fire powerfully past the keeper. The Mahrez style player showed some nice touches but struggled to outpace the Cinderford backline. As soon as Hereford went into the lead there was a drinks break.
Owen-Evans looked sharper after his recovery game in midweek getting through a lot of work and charging down a clearance which just failed to fall kindly for him. Tom had a good game but by his high standards his crossing was not quite at the level we’ve come to expect. He made a good captain “managing” the referee and organising trialists as best he could.
The trialist resembling Ngolo Kante in midfield started with some poor touches but got better and started to play some quick sharp balls and recovered possession neatly. Pollock again looked solid as a centre back, but it was hard to get any sense of a team with such disparate individuals.
At half time Hereford changed to something approaching a potential first time. With fresh legs and Cinderford making less changes it was a slightly unfair fight with fresh legs versus old legs. The pressure continued to build, and it was only a matter of time before the Bulls scored. The goal came through an error with Cinderford keeper Jones rushing out of the box to try and head clear a but making a misjudgement and instead nodding the ball straight up into the air. It fell kindly to Kouhyer and he controlled the ball and passed it into the net.
Hereford should have gone on to win comfortably but a slip by Bodenham saw the ball crossed to Duncan who finished well. Bodenham tried to carry on but was clearly in some discomfort and was substituted.
Bearing in
mind something close to a first choice Hereford side were fitter, faster
and more skilled against a tiring Cinderford Town in the second half
this should have been a comfortable victory. The failure of the trialist
forwards to convert the many chances created means that there may be
more trials ahead for trialists to get the sort of scorer required.
Hereford manager Josh Gowling gave his reaction to his side's 2-2 draw with Cinderford Town in this afternoon's pre-season friendly.
You can listen to what he had to say here.
Hereford drew 2-2 against Cinderford in their latest pre-season friendly.
Twice the Bulls took the lead, but twice they were soon pegged back.
One of a number of trialists who started for Hereford scored the opener in the 28th minute before Cinderford were awarded a penalty seven minutes later. Despite seeing his spot-kick pushed on to the bar by the trialist goalkeeper, Lewis Bamford was on hand to net the rebound.
Hereford regained the lead in the 64th minute when Maziar Kouyhar was on hand to slot the ball into an empty net after Cinderford goalkeeper Nick Jones could only head the ball into his path, but back came the home side who made it 2-2 just three minutes later thanks to a fine Camden Duncan effort.
Hereford will play their fourth pre-season friendly at Cinderford this afternoon.
Manager Josh Gowling is expected to give a few of the recent un-named trialists another game to impress but many supporters will be looking to see if the three named trialists Ben Pollock, Maziar Kouhyar and Jack Bodenham are any closer to being offered deals.
It looks like Gowling will have plenty of players at the game as he appears unlikely to let anyone play for the whole 90 minutes.
"We're still not up to our minutes yet so we'll stagger our minutes," said Gowling.
"We'll mix things around a little bit but it will still be another tough test."
Admission for Adults is £8 and Concessions £5
Sat Nav for the ground: GL14 2QH
There will be full match commentary of the game on Radio Hereford FC.
This from the FSA:
A new independent regulator, along with other significant
reforms to football’s governance, is urgently needed to protect the
game’s future according to the interim report from the Fan-led Review.
On
Thursday, the Fan-led Review chair Tracey Crouch MP wrote to the
Government with her initial findings, which recommend wholesale reform
to the rules governing football throughout the pyramid.
In her
interim report, Crouch is recommending the establishment of an
independent regulator which will oversee a new club licensing system to
improve the standard of ownership across the game.
Additionally,
the report recommends legislation to make supporter engagement
mandatory, wide-ranging reform of existing football authorities,
improving equality and diversity in the game, and providing democratic
supporter groups with a ‘golden share’ in their clubs. This share would
provide fans the power of veto over certain issues.
“It is the voice of fans that has been loudest and clearest,” Crouch said.
“It
is absolutely evident from our sessions that the football authorities
have lost the trust and confidence of the fans as have, in a number of
cases, clubs themselves.”
FSA Evidence
Last month we met with Tracey Crouch and the Fan-led Review panel to make comprehensive proposals for the future of football.
Our proposals are based on the experiences of our affiliated and associated supporters’ organisations across England and Wales, at all levels of the game. FSA member groups were also given the opportunity to present their own evidence.
Jake Wright has joined Boston. The former Bolton defender was at Hereford for two months last season.
John Eustace is set to become Swansea's new manager. He played for Hereford on loan from Stoke in 2006.
West Brom's Hereford born keeper Josh Griffiths is expected to go out on loan again this season. Last season he was with Cheltenham.
Another former Hereford player in the news is Nicky Featherstone, he has signed a two year deal to remain with Hartlepool.
Goalkeeper Rhys Lovett will be at Maidenhead this season. Twice in recent seasons he has trialled with Hereford.
Lennel John-Lewis, formerly with Hereford and now with Grimsby, could miss the start of the season with injury.
Darlington have signed winger Kevin Dos Santos from Tadcaster.
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| Delroy Facey Scores For Hereford Against Cheltenham In February 2012 |
Tickets for next Tuesday's pre-season friendly between Hereford and Cheltenham are now on sale.
Ideally Hereford would prefer if tickets were purchased online - https://www.flowte.me/storefront/index.php?v=702 - or from the club shop.
However they can be purchased 'on the night' from the ticket office.
Admission:
Seated: Adults £12, Concessions £10, Under 16 Free but a ticket is required.
Standing: Adults £10, Concessions £8, Under 16 Free but a ticket is required
Club Shop Opening Times:
Today (Friday) 10am to 4pm
Monday 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 10am to 4pm.
Rather late, a selection of pictures from last Tuesday's friendly between Hereford and Shrewsbury.
