Gomez the Mexican Cat has sent this in to Bulls News after watching the Bulls draw at Darlington yesterday:
Darlington away wouldn’t have been the first fixture that jumped out to many Hereford fans when the list was released, unless it was to plan a weekend off from the footy, but I spent a lot of time in the town during the early 90’s and always planned to get there if I could, so on Saturday I got up extra early to catch the 0806 train to York. The day didn’t start particularly well as when I arrived at King’s Cross there was no sign of my train on the boards.
A combination of engineering works and the complications of train companies meant the ticket I had bought back in August was worthless. I had two choices – the common sense one to go home or the “definition of insanity” as my brother put it to pay £110 for a day return to York. On the basis I had a ticket for the game and had been looking forward to this (or as much as you can look forward to seeing Hereford play at present) for some time, insanity it was. Even with a yet to be applied for refund, this will probably be the most expensive day out I’ve have ever had with Hereford – United or FC.
Was it worth it? Well yes, on balance it was. I enjoyed revisiting old haunts, having a wander around the shops and South Park as mentioned in Eric’s match report is glorious, though I can’t necessarily recommend walking through it in the dark after the game to get back to the station.
The game itself was entertaining and I see it as a point gained, rather than two lost. Our goals came from a keeper error and a break away but we were under the cosh for long periods. Darlington play entertaining football and should be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.
It is fair to say this season is not working out as many envisaged. I didn’t expect promotion again, but consolidation, with perhaps an FA Cup or Trophy run would have kept me and most fans more than happy. However, in mid September we imploded from non-league darlings to yet another footballing basket case and two months on, we are in trouble.
I am not sure exactly what the board envisaged as they put changes into place, but I am pretty sure a relegation struggle wasn’t it. It is human nature to allocate blame when things go wrong, but the question is to who? Well Andrew Graham said this week the buck stops with the directors, so I guess we can start with them! The dismissal of the previous management team was handled incredibly poorly and while we cannot say what would have happened had Beadle and Jenkins still been in charge, I think they would have steadied things down.
We are also in the midst of an injury crisis and that certainly hasn’t helped. Symons, Reffell, Horsell, Lance Smith and Richards were all missing last week against FCUM, that is almost half a team of our most experienced players at this level. Symons has been a big miss this season so far, his style of play may not be to everyone’s taste, but he is hugely effective and experienced player and while it is good to see him back, it will take him time to return to full fitness. Reffell was our best play last season, so we are struggling without that cohort of experienced footballers.
We have new management, new players, loan players, and it is almost as if we are starting pre-season again, but instead, it is a third of the way through the season. If the board had wanted to change things round, they should have done it in the summer. We have gone through so many changes in a short space of time and the continuity has been shattered.
However, I am yet to be convinced that change was needed at all. This season should have been all about consolidation. For the first three seasons Hereford FC was one of THE non league clubs everyone wanted to play for. We had THE pick local talent, clubs were keen to loan us their promising youngsters, everyone wanted to be part of this journey.
However, this season, north or south, was always going to be different. Hereford didn’t move geographically in the summer, we were going to be at the northern edge of National League South, or the southern edge of National League North and attracting players was going to be harder as it used to be when we were a league side. National League North is full of former league teams, keen to return, with others looking to join them, National League South might have been slightly less challenging, but we would have still been up against former National League sides and others with big backers.
Why not consolidate for a year, see how it went, and if a change in direction was wanted, then do it once we had a more realistic idea of what we were up against. Instead we have jumped into the unknown and the club is fracturing before our eyes.
What saddens me most of all is I thought we were better than this. Perhaps that was very naïve of me but I feel hugely let down by the board and also HUST (I thought long and hard before I sent them this year’s membership fee). It is telling that with all we have been through in recent years and as a fan of over 35 years I can’t ever remember feeling so disillusioned about the whole enterprise.
I never assumed that Beadle would want to stay for ever, that he would even be the person to take us into the promised land of the football league, but I never saw him being sacked in such a manner either. The whole management change was been handled so poorly and we are left with a group of young, willing players, whose potential is not in doubt, but their experience in this situation is. I have nothing against Harris and Richards et al personally and they looked okay on paper, but they need to start turning things round and soon.
Also, the relationship between the players and the fans which has been so good since we reformed, is showing signs of breaking. Whatever frustration the fans feel should not be taken out on a group of young lads running their hearts out for the cause and those players should be better protected by management.
Let’s face it, we have been spoilt since August 2015. That non-stop rollercoaster of success wasn’t going to last for ever but it is suddenly on a downward slope and it is times like these that we should be there supporting the team, however angered and disillusioned we feel about the board and management structure.
I assume having had to pay off Beadle and Jenkins, we are stuck with the new team for better or worse. For three years we were the cats’ whiskers, for everyone’s sake let’s hope we don’t turn into the dogs’ dinner.
COYB
Gomez the Mexican Cat