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| Peter Beadle, Mike Langford and Joel Edwards |
About 60 Hereford FC supporters attended this evening's Fans Forum held at the Starlight Room at Edgar Street.
Mike Langford chaired the meeting and both Hereford FC manager Peter Beadle and captain Joel Edwards sat with him on top table.
Langford had been given a list of questions from supporters unable to attend and one was about who would replace Harvey Rivers in goal should he receive an injury.
"I'm sure there would be willing bodies," said Beadle
Beadle explained that sometimes it was difficult to bring in players as back up.
"It's hard to find an accomplished keeper to sit on the bench.
"We've got an arrangement with Dan (Lloyd-Weston). He's over his injury and has trained with us."
Beadle explained that should something happen to Rivers then he would have to bring someone in and that could be Lloyd-Weston. But he hadn't a big enough budget simply to bring in a reserve keeper.
"Harvey is very young for a keeper. He's a very fortunate young man to have an opportunity to be with a club this size.
"But he's doing very well. Seven clean sheets on the bounce.
"He may not have had a lot to do recently but what he has done, he's done well.
"He knows his distribution has to get better.
"Dan is a student at Harpbury and whatever money he makes he needs to make sure it counts.
"He wants to play but it's a case of finding him a club that can pay him what he wants.
"He's not getting anything at the minute but I don't think he would want to come here and just sit on the bench.
"And we're not in a position to offer him what he wants."
Later Beadle was asked why he had returned to Edgar Street.
"I been involved in football since I was 16, I've had lot of clubs.
"I came here and it was a special time for me because I worked with a real special group of young men and what they achieved in that short space of time with everything else going on behind the scenes, not being paid but they still came in every day, still came in and went to college.
"They all got their qualifications and that is something you don't find very often. It was different to anything I'd been involved in before, certainly in youth football.
"Then being around the first team if only for eight games, I know some of the games weren't great.
"But I think in that short time we tried to change the way we tried to play.
"We were really in a bad place but if we were to go down, let's go down fighting.
"It was also going to be by the skin of our teeth but then to have it taken away because when it all changed there was no communication whatsoever from the new people who came in. I never had one phone call.
"It felt like business wasn't finished for me here so when the opportunity come up to start again I put my name in, it just make commonsense and obviously I was out of work!
"I'm delighted that I'm here, delighted things are going as well as they are now.
"I didn't expect them to be going as well but they are and we're not going to knock it.
"It just felt like unfinished business."
The contracts signed by John Mills and Pablo Haysham was another topic raised. Why did Haysham take so long to sign?
"I think he just wanted to make sure he was making the right choice.
"It was a big decision for him. It means he tied to the club for the rest of the season.
"There was never a doubt of him not wanting to be here. I think in the way he plays it shows he wants to be here.
"But I think he wanted to take his time and make sure he was making the right decision.
"There was never any pressure on him to sign, I only rang him once every 25 minutes.
"I was confident he would sign it. He wanted someone to look at it to see there were no hidden clauses in there. It was just a matter of having a bit of patience.
"The fact that John signed his as quickly as he did was brilliant, but these things can't be rushed. It was only very late Monday night finally he said yes I'll sign and I'll do it tomorrow.
"I'm sure there will be questions about how many more can sign contracts but I think these two are goalscorers and they are hard to find, really hard to find and the fact that they've come as a pair is even harder to find and I think it was imperative that we made sure we have them at least to the end of the season.
"It will be far easy to keep them than it would have been to replace. To try and find players to replace them would be extremely hard.
"So it's a massive bonus for the football club.
"It also gets ride of a lot of these rumours that fly around.
"It's the one pet hate of football clubs that people for whatever reason when they say they are supporters they then start these things off and they can cause more problems.
"At the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same thing, the football club, the board, the coaching staff, players ans supporters, we all want to achieve the same thing.
"We are far stronger if everyone is pulling the same way rather the odd one or two who keep chipping in with silly rumours that can be harmful.
"These two signing a contract puts that to bed now. I don't have to worry about anybody taking them away unless they come up with a serious offer."
Mustapha Bundu
"His clearance has come through but we're now in a position where the word has got out about him mainly because people know too much and put things on websites.
"Since then he's been watched by a couple of clubs and he's now off to a Premiership club for a week at the beginning of November.
"Because he's going there, he's part of the Craig Bellamy foundation and they don't want him playing for us in case he was injured before he goes to this club.
"If he does go and they want to keep him then they'll have to sign him and send him off somewhere, France, Belgium, for two or three years to get his work permit.
"It's not dead and buried.
"I know that seeing him yesterday he wants to come to Hereford. Once he saw me he made a beeline to come to me. Big smile.
"If and when they agree for him to come them we'll bring him in. If we do get him in, he'll become a firm favourite.
"He's been once and seen a game at home. He fell in love with it, with the crowd and everything else. He just wants to come and play here but because of the controls from being part of the Bellamy Foundation, the powers that be won't let him do that."
Beadle spoke about the younger players in the squad.
"I'm not scared to play kids, if they're good enough they're in.
"The three lads we had when I was here last year in Jarod, Billy and Cory, they should have played far sooner than they did. I could see something in them that they had no fear.
"Carlos has come in slowly and he's still got lots to learn but he deserved his chance last weekend at Brocton and he didn't let anyone down.
"Go back as far as Pershore, Lewis Clarke, Jay Richmond, Tom Gameson, Lewis is only 16 and played an extremely good game. Jay the same, he played the other night against Hinton. These players are steadily making progress and the more we have contact with them the quicker they will develope.
"Tuesday (Westfields) is an awkward game for me. I've got to look at it with my manager's head on. It's an ideal competition for us to get these youngsters on the pitch, to get them integrated with some of the first team players.
"But I also know Tuesday is going to be a really tough game physically and I wouldn't want to put them (youngsters) in harms way either, hopefully if we get through the game then the youngsters will have another chance.
"I would have no problem playing them if need be as long as they are ready.
"Matt McDonald came on and scored in the game the other night. Tom is not quite ready yet but he's at Peggy at the moment and scored two last weekend.
"It's perfect for us, he's out there playing senior football, scoring goals and that will only make him a better player.
"Carlos trains quite often with us, I'm speaking to Jay at the weekend to get him to come in and train with us as long as it fits in with the UITC programme."
The contracts signed by John Mills and Pablo Haysham was another topic raised. Why did Haysham take so long to sign?
"I think he just wanted to make sure he was making the right choice.
"It was a big decision for him. It means he tied to the club for the rest of the season.
"There was never a doubt of him not wanting to be here. I think in the way he plays it shows he wants to be here.
"But I think he wanted to take his time and make sure he was making the right decision.
"There was never any pressure on him to sign, I only rang him once every 25 minutes.
"I was confident he would sign it. He wanted someone to look at it to see there were no hidden clauses in there. It was just a matter of having a bit of patience.
"The fact that John signed his as quickly as he did was brilliant, but these things can't be rushed. It was only very late Monday night finally he said yes I'll sign and I'll do it tomorrow.
"I'm sure there will be questions about how many more can sign contracts but I think these two are goalscorers and they are hard to find, really hard to find and the fact that they've come as a pair is even harder to find and I think it was imperative that we made sure we have them at least to the end of the season.
"It will be far easy to keep them than it would have been to replace. To try and find players to replace them would be extremely hard.
"So it's a massive bonus for the football club.
"It also gets ride of a lot of these rumours that fly around.
"It's the one pet hate of football clubs that people for whatever reason when they say they are supporters they then start these things off and they can cause more problems.
"At the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same thing, the football club, the board, the coaching staff, players ans supporters, we all want to achieve the same thing.
"We are far stronger if everyone is pulling the same way rather the odd one or two who keep chipping in with silly rumours that can be harmful.
"These two signing a contract puts that to bed now. I don't have to worry about anybody taking them away unless they come up with a serious offer."
Mustapha Bundu
"His clearance has come through but we're now in a position where the word has got out about him mainly because people know too much and put things on websites.
"Since then he's been watched by a couple of clubs and he's now off to a Premiership club for a week at the beginning of November.
"Because he's going there, he's part of the Craig Bellamy foundation and they don't want him playing for us in case he was injured before he goes to this club.
"If he does go and they want to keep him then they'll have to sign him and send him off somewhere, France, Belgium, for two or three years to get his work permit.
"It's not dead and buried.
"I know that seeing him yesterday he wants to come to Hereford. Once he saw me he made a beeline to come to me. Big smile.
"If and when they agree for him to come them we'll bring him in. If we do get him in, he'll become a firm favourite.
"He's been once and seen a game at home. He fell in love with it, with the crowd and everything else. He just wants to come and play here but because of the controls from being part of the Bellamy Foundation, the powers that be won't let him do that."
Beadle spoke about the younger players in the squad.
"I'm not scared to play kids, if they're good enough they're in.
"The three lads we had when I was here last year in Jarod, Billy and Cory, they should have played far sooner than they did. I could see something in them that they had no fear.
"Carlos has come in slowly and he's still got lots to learn but he deserved his chance last weekend at Brocton and he didn't let anyone down.
"Go back as far as Pershore, Lewis Clarke, Jay Richmond, Tom Gameson, Lewis is only 16 and played an extremely good game. Jay the same, he played the other night against Hinton. These players are steadily making progress and the more we have contact with them the quicker they will develope.
"Tuesday (Westfields) is an awkward game for me. I've got to look at it with my manager's head on. It's an ideal competition for us to get these youngsters on the pitch, to get them integrated with some of the first team players.
"But I also know Tuesday is going to be a really tough game physically and I wouldn't want to put them (youngsters) in harms way either, hopefully if we get through the game then the youngsters will have another chance.
"I would have no problem playing them if need be as long as they are ready.
"Matt McDonald came on and scored in the game the other night. Tom is not quite ready yet but he's at Peggy at the moment and scored two last weekend.
"It's perfect for us, he's out there playing senior football, scoring goals and that will only make him a better player.
"Carlos trains quite often with us, I'm speaking to Jay at the weekend to get him to come in and train with us as long as it fits in with the UITC programme."