Leeds - Another Scalp for the Bulls

Perhaps the final article on Hereford United's history-making win at Leeds last Tuesday comes from the Times.

Leeds United may have downsized in recent years, but it was still a bona fide giant-killing from a club with previous. Hereford United’s victory at Elland Road in Tuesday’s FA Cup first-round replay evoked memories of their famous defeat of Newcastle United in 1972.

Then, Ronnie Radford’s 30-yard shot and Ricky George’s extra-time winner did for Newcastle in a third-round replay. Hereford were in the Southern League, Newcastle the top flight. Later that year, Leeds went on to lift the trophy. For Radford and George, read Lionel Ainsworth, a 20-year-old former Derby County trainee who scored the only goal on Tuesday after three minutes.

“He’s got a great shot with both feet and plenty of pace. He’s got a good pedigree and if he keeps his feet on the ground, he could go a long way,” Graham Turner, the Hereford chairman and manager, said.

Wayne Brown, the goalkeeper, said: “It was a great win and I thought we thoroughly deserved it. We created a lot of chances and Leeds didn’t trouble us too much. We dealt well with the Leeds attack. We are happy, but we knew that Leeds were beatable. Leeds is a big name and another scalp – so we have to be pleased with our night’s work.”

Hereford’s Cup reputation is merited, even though nothing has come close to the result in 1972. They have beaten 12 clubs from higher divisions since then. After Newcastle, they were beaten in a fourth-round replay by West Ham United – Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick in front of 42,000 at Upton Park.

There were only 11,315 at Elland Road on Tuesday. Some Hereford fans may have experienced mixed feelings about the early goal: dozens missed it, arriving late because their coaches were stuck in traffic on the motorway. For some, the 180-mile journey from the Welsh border took more than five hours and they did not arrive until half-time. The trip back, at least, must have been satisfying.

Although the Leeds players have responded impressively to the club’s preseason deduction of 15 points for failing to comply with the Football League’s insolvency policy, this was yet another trough. Leeds have not won an FA Cup match since February 2003. That season they reached the third round of the Uefa Cup and finished fifteenth in the top flight.

Now they are fourth in Coca-Cola League One and out of all three cups, beaten in the Carling Cup by Ports-mouth and, last week, humbled at home by Bury in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

“We’ve performed well in the league but not in the cups this season and we are out of them all now,” Dennis Wise, the Leeds manager, said. “I didn’t want to go out, but it might prove a blessing in disguise because promo-tion is our priority this season.”

However, it means no boost to their still-precarious finances and there could be negative repercussions for the league. Casper Ankergren, the Leeds goalkeeper, was forced off shortly before half-time and required stitches for a leg wound that could keep him out of Sunday’s match away to Cheltenham Town.

The stardust from beating one of English football’s most famous names on their own turf will soon wash off: Hereford play host to Hartlepool United in the second round and are at home to Accrington Stanley this weekend. They are second in League Two in only their second season after returning to the league.

“We’ve got to come back down to earth and think about Accrington on Saturday,” Turner said. “The manager in me thinks that’s more important but the chairman likes the money we get from the cup.”

Country practices

— Hereford was home to the SAS until the late 1990s, when the unit moved to a base near by.

— In 2001, the club’s lucky mascot, a bull, was banned from the ground because of foot-and-mouth restrictions. For a Cup tie in 1996, it was not allowed into White Hart Lane for fear it would escape its handlers and run wild.

— Before cup games, fans used to “worship the swede” – kicking the vegetable into a goal before kick-off – but the ritual was scrapped because some felt it made them look like yokels.

— A new cider mill is planned for Herefordshire that will have a capacity of 100 million litres. The Bulmers Cider factory is less than a mile from Edgar Street. In the 14th century, babies in the county were baptised with cider because it was thought to be cleaner than water.

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