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| Match Programme |
The Football League Extra Feature
A report from the Independent:
Relegation happens over a season, not just in one game, but that will be
no consolation to Hereford United who lost league status yesterday
after their fellow Third Division strugglers, Brighton, claimed the draw
that allowed them to stay up by virtue of a better scoring record.
After 25 years in the lower divisions, Hereford are down into the GM
Vauxhall Conference - a league whose increasing strength makes the
romance of an instant return unlikely.
Nevertheless Hereford played valiantly yesterday and took what promised
to be a vital lead through a cruel own-goal. But a Brighton equaliser
from Robbie Reinelt, just eight minutes after he had come on as
substitute, proved an insurmountable hurdle for the home side - many of
whom left the pitch in tears at the realisation of their fate.
For Brighton, who brought close to 3,500 fans with them - truly a flock
of Seagulls - the game completed a remarkable escape generated since the
appointment of Steve Gritt as manager last December.
"I was glad when the game started after all the hype," a breathless
Gritt said afterwards "But I wouldn't want to go through all that
again."
For his Hereford counterpart Graham Turner, the day was too much to
bear. Later, with the ground now deserted, he quietly announced his
intention to offer his resignation. "I have to take responsibility for
what's happened here over the season. I've just been into the
dressing-room and it's awful in there. But that's football I suppose."
Hereford's tenure on the league had looked secure for the first hour as
their powerful three-man attack of Tony Agana, John Williams and 18-
goal top-scorer Adrian Foster put the Brighton defence under constant
pressure.
Their enterprise in the context of a brutally tense occasion was almost
heroic although the circumstances of their goal were a perverse form of
divine intervention. Agana wrestled free inside the Brighton box and was
able to turn the ball across the face of the goal, where Foster was
waiting but Brighton's Kerry Mayo stuck out a foot to send the ball into
his own net.
The young midfielder fell face down on the turf so abject was his misery
and a suddenly nervous Brighton did well to complete the half without
conceding the second goal that would have done for them. But as the
clock ticked on towards the drop zone Hereford's energy drained away
while Brighton were urged on by their increasingly frantic travelling
support.
A poor goal-kick by the Hereford keeper Andy de Bont set up the Brighton
equaliser with Craig Maskell's volley rebounding from the post for
Reinelt to tap home.
Chances opened up at either end but Hereford had the best in injury-time
when Foster was put clean through but could only drive his shot
straight into the relieved hands of Mark Ormerod. The Hereford fans
slumped in despair.
(Picture taken by Stuart Roy Clarke and published with permission)
At the final whistle a huge line of riot police occupied the pitch to
prevent a wedge of home fans from getting to the Brighton end. But there
seemed little malice left in these melancholy supporters, who were
applauded sympathetically by their Brighton counterparts, fans who know
only too well that the misery could have been theirs.
On the following Monday another article in The Independent:
It started with more than a century of League history on the line, and
it ended with a chubby, cheerful middle-aged man waving a toupee in
front of a huddle of reporters and then perching it on his gleaming
crown. Such was the mood at Edgar Street on an afternoon when the
tension threatened to drive everyone mad.
Strangest of all, the jolly man with the wig was Peter Hill, chairman of
Hereford, who had just watched as his team, the ultimate victims of
Brighton's astonishing run of results in 1997, were stripped of their
League status - unless the League's plan to bring in 16 Conference teams
and regionalise the Third Division comes to fruition.
The hairpiece, Mr Hill assured us, was "to wipe the tears away", and on
the terraces at least, there were plenty of those, whether of grief or
relief. This was perhaps the scrappiest 1-1 draw all season in a
division which sees more than its share, yet for the 3,500 among the
sell-out crowd of 8,000 who had travelled from the South Coast, no point
could be more precious.
Their hero, too, is far from fully thatched, but as the Brighton fans
love to sing of Steve Gritt, "he's got no hair, but we don't care". The
Seagulls' form since Gritt's arrival late last year, when the side were
11 points from safety, has been exceptional, particularly at the now
defunct Goldstone Ground. If they can pick up the same thread next
season, wherever their new home might be, any late-season dramas are
likely to concern promotion, not relegation.
Not that you would have thought it during a desperate first half.
Hereford, who had to score, lined up 3-4-3, and proceeded to swarm all
over the visitors. Tony Agana was magnificent, winning four out of every
five of the long balls which were fired at him with tedious regularity,
while his pace and strength were a constant problem for the Brighton
defence. Within minutes, they were nervous to the point of panic, and
never more so than after 20 minutes, when Kerry Mayo attempted to put a
low cross behind for a corner only to find his own net instead.
The Seagulls had one foot in the Conference, and the second might have
followed after 34 minutes, as Agana beat Mark Ormerod's wild rush
outside his area and crossed for Adrian Foster, whose headed attempt was
blocked. In the final analysis, though, what condemned Hereford was
their defeat at Orient seven days earlier.
Brighton's salvation arrived with 26 minutes left. Craig Maskell's
excellent long-range volley beat Andy deBont and then passed him once
more on its way back from the far post. Robbie Reinelt, a recent and
influential substitute, applied the finishing touch.
The tension was now unbearable, and it was Hereford who felt it most as
they set off in search of another lifeline. Passing and discipline
disintegrated, but even then, Foster wasted two excellent chances - as,
admittedly, did Maskell - before they finally slipped out of the League.
"I feel totally responsible," Graham Turner, Hereford's manager, said
afterwards. "I'm going to take Monday off, it's a Bank Holiday after
all, and then I'll come in on Tuesday morning and do the decent thing by
handing in my resignation. Then it will be up to the people around me."
Supporters are kept apart at full time.