.png)
Lilleshall trip for United cup hopefuls
There's no doubt Hereford United are taking the FA Cup seriously, to the extent that boss Graham Turner has decided to take his squad on a morale-boosting trip to the FA's Lilleshall Centre to prepare for the game.
The Bulls only just managed to scrape through against Arlesey Town in the fourth qualifying round, securing a 1-0 victory, but United have a good record in the first round in recent years.
Once they have reached the competition proper, which has tended to cause one or two difficulties over the past few seasons, United generally do quite well. They beat Wrexham last season, York City in 1999/2000 and Brighton & Hove Albion in 1997/98 since relegation to the Conference. All three Football League teams were overcome by a single goal.
Wigan and Hereford have only met once before in the FA Cup. That match came in December 1953, when Wigan won 4-1 at their old home, Springfield Park, in front of a record crowd for a non-league match outside of the major cup finals. Some 27,526 turned up for the game, but a bruising defeat to the Lancashire Combination side sent United home unhappy.
The Hereford Times reports that a special train was put on for some of the 1500 United fans who made the trip to Lancashire, and not one of the 4200 bottles of beer loaded onto the train at the start of the journey was left when it returned to Hereford station!