.png)
Two previews of the game between Hereford and Brighton 27 years ago, the first comes from The Independent, the second from the Daily Mail.
Believe it or not, there are two clubs facing the threat of relegation from the Football League today.
By now, the world and his Jack Russell knows that Brighton are facing
the drop, and for the last few weeks civilisation, at least that part of
it between London and the South Coast, seems to have been in shock at
the prospect.
Despite all the hullabaloo over Brighton, Hereford are also facing the
drop and today's game with the Seagulls at Edgar Street will decide
which of the two plunges over the precipice.
Unlike Brighton, Hereford have not had the huge amount of sympathetic
media attention to whip up support, probably because it is not within
commuting distance of London, it isn't supported by Des Lynam or any
other celebrity, not even Tony Gubba, and it doesn't have the huge
number of glory fans that the South Coast club has attracted in its 90
minutes of need.
As far as everyone outside Hereford is concerned, there are only two
possible results today: Brighton go down or Brighton stay up.
Now Hereford may not be in the golden triangle of the South-east, or in a
northern oasis like Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, but it is a
good, solid, honest club, the meat and two veg of middle England
football and the Third Division, and it deserves to survive in the
League.
Hereford is a traditional family club where the fans don't riot, don't
invade the pitch, don't get hauled away by the police or get banned, and
don't court publicity. It is true that in times of adversity the odd
fist is shaken in the direction of the directors, who, incidentally,
still sit under the same corrugated roofs as the rest of us - no
executive boxes here - but that is the limit of any antisocial
behaviour.
Hereford is a club where jokes about linesmen leaving their spectacles
at homes still raise a chuckle, where mints are exchanged between
strangers, where the Cornish pasties are still served brittle-black at
the edges from old-fashioned warming cabinets, and where burning-hot Oxo
is the favourite half-time tipple.
Twenty-five years ago, when Hereford burst into the Football League and
were then subsequently promoted within a season under Colin Addison,
they brought a breath of fresh air to the stagnant old Fourth Division,
which was then almost impossible to get into because outsiders had to be
elected rather than promoted.
For people like Frank Miles, who was club chairman when United were
elected, and Addison, now managing Merthyr Tydfil, and for today's fans
like my son, Ben, the only student who commutes from Manchester to
Hereford to watch decent football, the drop into the GM Vauxhall
Conference would be a disaster and one from which the club might never
recover.
The club's managing director, Robin Fry, has said the playing staff will
remain full- time should the unthinkable happen today, in a bid to get
back into the League at the first attempt. But with little spare money
around and with crowds even in the League running at around a lowly
3,000, the prospects in the Conference would not be good.
For 25 years Hereford have been a more useful member of the League than
clubs that have bumped around the bottom for the best part of a century
and rarely achieved anything. True, the trophy cupboard at Edgar Street
is a little light and we have had a few near misses in the relegation
zone over the last few years, but last season, don't forget, we were in
the play-offs for promotion from the Third Division.
Clubs like Hereford are what football should be all about: places where
you can watch 90 minutes of football for a fair price on terraces where
supporters curse and moan about their team much of the time and then
spend the remainder cheering them on.
There are no big businesses or millionaires vying for boardroom power at
Hereford. We do not - thank God - have too many glory supporters and we
certainly don't have much money.
When the game kicks off today, it will be almost as evenly balanced as
it is possible to get. Both clubs have 46 points. Hereford have the
worst home record, while the visitors Brighton hold the worst away
record.
The stakes are high, but for the sake of small clubs with loyal, law-
abiding fans, for clubs who are not fashionable or rich, and for clubs
who never get mentioned on Match of the Day, Hereford should and must
win.
But if Hereford go down today, the League will be a poorer place.
RICKY George, reports the Daily Mail, scorer of non-league Hereford's
winning goal when they humbled Newcastle in the FA Cup 25 years ago,
waved the flag for his former club before today's relegation showdown
with Brighton.
Hereford must win at Edgar Street to survive in Division Three and
George, now 51 and a businessman, said: "I'll be desperately sad if they
go down. Not so much for the players, but the supporters and chairman
Peter Hill, who's put his life into the club.
"It may be a football backwater, but the people down there are as passionate as Manchester United supporters.
"I know there'll be a lot of sympathy for Brighton after all they've
been through. They have the great League traditions, whereas Hereford
are still regarded by some as newcomers, but nobody has a divine right
to stay in this League."