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Next Game: Marine At Edgar Street On Saturday 9th November At 3.00pm

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Fans Forum: What We Learned From Part Two

Q: Difference between National League North and where Hereford have come from?

Tim Harris: It's totally different because it's a proper league. Just got to look at Stockport, Darlington and York. Thankfully Salford and AFC Fylde have moved on.
North is much stronger than South.
Have to look at how HFC can compete, develop a team and attack it. You can throw money at it like Salford and FGR and waste a lot of money. Have to get a Head Coach who is dynamic and forward-thinking.
You need money and be competitive, but you need to develop. It's important fans understand the plan to take the club forward and the youth development.

Q: With the new structure, was it a plan B three years ago or is it a new development?

George Webb: A normal football club first of all. After 3-6 months they inherited a structure that caused HUFC to go bust.
6-12 months into running the football club they were looking ahead.
When we lost to Stourport, we stole their best player because we played him £100 a week extra. But going forward this wasn't going to work as you go up the leagues.
Club don't want to throw money at it. They need solid foundations, and develop and produce players. Pete Beadle was the right appointment first of all.
Currently this is the best strategy to ensure the football club is here in time.

Q: How important is the new appointment?

Tim Harris: Life is a gamble and you can never be 100% sure. Some very good applicants and hopefully the right decision is made. Five or six people are ideally suited to the role.
I've got a lot of experience and it's vital you get the boxes ticked and the right decisions are made to take the club forward.

Q: Do most clubs from the North have loanees from League clubs?

Tim Harris: I disagree. At the end of the day it's all about contacts. I've got some really good contacts. I picked up Keiran Thomas' brother, Luke, from Derby's Academy and nurtured him.
Harvey Smith has bought into the club and loan players don't often do that as they think they're bigger than the club. Harvey last night was excellent. If you can get the right loanees from the right clubs it can be very beneficial.
Speaking to Tony Pulis last year, he went to Middlesbrough and said 'what can I do for you?' If we want a certain player we need to know where to go. Would rather have own players rather than loans.

Q: What difference to HUST dominated directors make? 

Tony Taylor: HUST is interesting. HUST directors are a pain in the butt for the rest of the directors most the time! Learning to work together as a team. Seven individuals with seven ideas.
The shareholders have to learn to work together in a partnership to. Lots of clashes in board meetings. Difficult for existing directors to deal with new HUST directors coming in.
Board see themselves as a team but the two sets of directors do not agree. You can't have a vote every week whether you should sack the manager or not. Directors have to make their own decisions for that.
George Webb: Important to have HUST on the board. Always planning two or three years in advance. A lot of time spent bringing the HUST directors up to date who change every three years. Always brings freshness though.
Mick Merrick: Can't always go back to HUST members for divisions. Like MPs he does his best to represent constituency. Make decisions in best interest of club. If you don't like what HUST are doing, get involved! AGM on October 11.
Andrew Graham: HUST nominated directors are not a pain in the proverbial, they remain first and foremost fans. They talk to fans and find out what's wanted. There's the business and the product and service that fans expect on a weekly basis.

Q: Whoever is appointed as Head Coach, is there a budget to bring new players in?

Tim Harris: At the moment the candidates are very professional individuals. Some have been to the last few games and need to look at the whole structure.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out we're not scoring enough goals. Majority of players are non-contract and need to start performing. No extra budget, but it wasn't all being used. Do you need 23 players?
After watching two games we've got good lads and good attitudes. Too many that are similar and more quality is needed. If the players that are here currently show that passion that they did last night they're not bad. I wish Gareth Davies was in my team!

Q: Unanimous decision to sack Beadle

Mick Merrick: New HUST directors were not steamrolled into agreeing to sack Beadle. Not new to businesses or decisions. Knew board would get stick, but it was the right decisions.
Took as long as was needed to make decision. It was taken and then implemented quickly.

Q: Keiran Thomas should be on a contract if he's not

Tim Harris: Can't afford to lose the jewel in the crown. Keep it quiet for another week we'll get him to sign it, we need to dot the i's and cross the t's

Q: When are Symons and Reffell back?

Tim Harris: Reffell needs a CT scan, recurrence of old injury from last season that's not healing right. Will either need rehab or operation to pin it. Won't see him for a short period of time. 10-12 weeks or longer.
Symons is doing well. By the end of next month, but can't rush him back because they break down and are out longer.

Q: When will the club go full time? What's the difference  between now and Turner era?

Tim Harris: I want to do it sooner rather than later. Better chance when you see players on a daily basis. If you'd got that opportunity to work on everything than you'll have an advantage.
Training once or twice a week is difficult as you need to rely on players keeping their fitness levels up outside of training. I'd like to do it next week but I can't.
Peter Churchus: I think that if we go full time we'll need to raise more funds. Increasing tickets prices, more money from commercial, but if we can get the academy growing than that's another form of revenue.

Q: Raising ticket prices won't bring more people through the gates.

George Webb: There's probably more incentives to get season ticket holders, we're now at 1700. Reasonably priced season tickets, but match day prices will probably increased. Hospitality and club shop good too.
It's our job to raise money. If we could get to those 3,000 it would be great, but we need a good product on the pitch. Looking at Phoenix clubs, crowds starts good and tail off.
Board, HUST and supporters need to work together and the money needs to be raised. Need to look at advertising boards. First three years look like a doddle compared to the next three. If anyone's got the answer, I'll happy to listen.
I made a big mistake and missed out of the 16-18 year-old pricing as I focussed on under-16s. We'll play with the numbers to reach that, we may have to tweak prices, but the board need to work hard to get to the right answers.