The following was written by myself, and appeared in yesterday's Hereford Times as the View From Edgar Street:
It has been a year since club chairman David Keyte told shareholders of the stark financial situation at Edgar Street.
Back then, the Bulls played a home match before embarking on their FA Cup trail with a trip to FC United of Manchester. 100 fewer fans watched that Edgar Street game than Saturday's loss to Barnet, and the win over FC United proved to be the start of the resurrection of the club - for a short while.
The Bulls go into Saturday's game with AFC Hornchurch again needing the financial boost of an FA Cup run to balance their books. Despite a summer of cost-cutting, the remnants of the Football League contracts sucked up the money from 1,100 heavily discounted season tickets and left the club with a substantial shortfall in their monthly funding requirements, although the current issues are not a patch on last season's problems.
David Keyte told the most recent shareholders meeting that they had banked only around £6,000 for the home match with Lincoln and they weren't entirely sure how September's wage bill would be funded. They made it, just, unlike 12 months ago.
The income from the last two matches would have been slightly higher with around 200 more people through the doors, with the sums available probably doubled by the off-field income from the highly successful Starlite Rooms under the guidance of Ellen Moore and Dave Preedy, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the shortfall in finances even with reduced expenditure.
12 months ago the Board of Directors put out a plea for fans to help, as they would no longer fund the club, and the fans responded. They put a substantial five-figure sum into the club and a group walked from Malvern to Hereford in pouring rain, along with a string of other fundraising ventures, to keep the club afloat. The club won another FA Cup match and got a televised game, with that money averting the crisis.
Then the club made the baffling decision to sanction the payment of £3,000 for a player just days later.
Over the past couple of seasons, the club's public output has been something akin to Jeckyll and Hyde, with talks of crisis followed by an almost inexplicable expenditure. A crisis that runs through to December is followed by the signing of Chris Sharp. In April, a Director warns of a £300,000 summer shortfall then the club announces its commitment to a five-figure pitch renovation.
Yes, the pitch is very nice. But we still need a team to play on it.
Luke Graham's comments in this paper last week underlines the uncertainty at the club at present, while Martin Foyle's weekend comments - and the mention of the 'r' word - will only serve to set the uncertainty in deeper.
The board have repeatedly stated over the last 12 months that they will not fund the club further. It is the fans and the players that will have to get this club out of the current mess, just like the last one.