Andy Munsley considers the Club Chairman's rise to fame:
Back in June, Andy Lonsdale was an unnamed background figure as Tommy Agombar was 'doorstepped' at the Herefordshire Council offices by a group of fans. Today he sits as Chairman of the club and the sole person currently active at the club to have passed the Owners and Directors Test.
Lonsdale told fans when he first arrived as an advisor to Tommy Agombar that he was only at the club for a few weeks. He told the London press that he had no intention of leaving Bedfont & Feltham FC, having been there for nearly 20 years.
He left Bedfont just two weeks later and within a month was 'bleeding bulls blood' according to the insolvency practitioner.
Lonsdale blamed supporters for having to drop the Bedfont role (rather than the FA rule breach that it was) leaving one to wonder why he quit the club he'd been part of for so long in favour of a new one a hundred miles from his home turf with the majority of supporters already against his presence.
Lonsdale's rise continued. A month later the Southern League handbook named him as Chairman, a claim that was initially denied as a mistake, before he began naming himself as chairman on the club's website. However he insisted he was neither on the club's board itself or a shareholder.
Agombar had come and 'gone', Directors John Edwards and Elke Thuerlings had drifted into the sunset after the CVA failure. It reminded me of the Duracell adverts with the drumming monkeys against the pink bunny. As each drumming monkey ran out of juice, another popped up to continue the beat.
He spoke to the BBC referring to outside investors, and that he 'understood' this or 'has been told' that. He gave the full impression that he was only following orders from somewhere else.
His business past was hauled up, and it didn't make pretty reading. Having haraunged the Trust for 'not paying anyone' his history proved more than a little hypocritical.
Now he is the unlikely millionaire leader of a football club. The last hope to save Hereford United 1939 Ltd.