Result: 0-0
Attendance: 8,522
Hereford United: Hughes, Carver, Naylor, McLaughlin, Tucker, Mallender, Evans, Owen, Jenkins, Gregory, Radford (Lee).
Cambridge United: Vasper, O'Donnell, Akers, Watson, Guild, Eades, Ferguson, Greenhalgh, Simmons, Foote, Lennard (Ross).
League Position: 5th (11 games in)
On the Pitch: The draw makes it five games unbeaten for Hereford (DWWDD), "the book" reveals that Match of the Day cameras were at Edgar Street for what was an awful game.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Colin's Comments: Addison heaps praise on Hereford's recent away results, describing the the win at Port Vale as "magnificent". He rounds his notes off with the observation that the players are more relaxed away from home than at Edgar Street.
Third Division Round Up: It is revealed that Hereford have managed to go the opening 10 games of the season without conceding a first half goal, this game making it 11. Hereford are sat in 3rd spot in the average attendance chart (8,841 after 4 games).
In the Opposition: I just looked back through my ramblings from the previous season's corresponding fixture and I concluded that they were the least remarkable set of players you could assemble. Fortunately, they signed a 30 year old player from Plymouth called Alan Harris during the close season, brother to his better known Chelsea team mate Ron "Chopper" Harris. He also had a decent playing career in fairness at the likes of Chelsea (twice), Coventry, QPR, Plymouth, Cambridge, Hayes (player manager), and St.Patrick's Athletic. He spent roughly six seasons in the same team as Terry Venables at Chelsea, QPR and a both brief and random spell together at St.Patrick's. That bond would see him hook back up with Venables in the early 80's as his assistant manager at Crystal Palace, before going on to undertake the same role in the mid 80's at some obscure foreign club called Barcelona. Barcelona got to a European Cup Final in 1986 where they lost 2-0 on penalties to Steaua Bucharest after a goalless 120 minutes.
Edgar Street Chatter: It is announced that The Dallas Boys are doing a Len Weston stand fundraiser at the Crystal Rooms on October 16th 1973. They sound like male strippers but were in fact a group from an exotic town in the East Midlands called Leicester. They were described as Britain's first Boy Band.
Supporters' Corner: The whole article is taken up with the promotion of a new Spot-the-Ball competition that will see more of the profits going directly into football clubs. A first prize of £20k is promised (roughly £300k in 2024), to put that into context, the Pools had already paid out a top prize in excess of half a million (£8M today). The football league had agreed a deal in the early 70s worth approx. £1.75M a season to allow their fixtures to be used by the pools companies.
Going by Car: Check out life in the fast lane, a pre M25 trip to Southend.
In the News: Both LBC and Capital Radio are launched in early October 1973 as commercial radio is born. 8th October sees the announcement of a £10 Christmas bonus for pensioners which will be funded by a rise in National Insurance. 50 years of progress and shrewd financial management have put the government on a sound enough footing to both cull the modern equivalent of the pensioners' Christmas bonus and raise NI.
In the Charts: Eye Level by the Simon Park Orchestra remains at No.1.
In the Cinema: Don't Look Now and the Wicker Man are released in British Cinema as a double bill on 16th October - the former containing what is described as the most graphic sex scene ever shown. The film, in 2024, is not available on YouTube, Sky, Netflix or Amazon the right side of a paywall. I would imagine.
He's One of Our Own: Chris Boden was born on 13th October 1973, he played 4 times for Hereford in the 98-99 season before retiring from football after managing only 24 senior appearances. He had a good set of clubs though so to speak: Aston Villa, Barnsley, Derby County, Shrewsbury and Hereford.
