An article has been published on the Telegraph website all about Hereford and the 'fans fight to win back their football club'.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/hereford-town-rallied-save-football-club/
“Upsetting. Gutting. Absolutely devastating.”
Those were just a few of the reactions after the High Court blew the final whistle on Hereford United Football Club.
Some fans shed real tears as the club, unable to prove it could pay its debts, was officially wound up on December 19, 2014. A history spanning 90 years, which included beating top division side Newcastle United in one of the FA Cup’s greatest-ever giant killings, ended in just five agonising minutes.
The writing had been on the wall for some time. After relegation from the Football League in 2012, the club only stayed in the Conference with a last-gasp goal on the final day.
Already the subject of one winding-up petition from HMRC, it was issued with another by former manager Martin Foyle. This was adjourned for 28 days in June as developer Tommy Agombar bought the club, but less than two weeks later the club was expelled from the league for “financial irregularities”.
Later that month, fans carried a flag-draped coffin through the streets as part of a mock funeral protest against what was being done to their beloved team.
By the time the new season began in August, many boycotted games. Crowds dropped from several thousand to just a few hundred as protests raged outside the stadium.
Another new owner and associate of Agombar, Andrew Lonsdale, took over. Yet despite potential rescue plans being mooted, by mid-December it was all over.
Keith Hall, 65, one of the pallbearers in the fans’ funeral protest, recalls that final day.
He says: “We thought that was it, to be honest. We thought ‘we’ll have no football’. The only way was to get the club shut down and try to get [the owners] to leave.
"We didn’t want it to die even though it had gone into liquidation. We were absolutely stymied, we’d lost the club completely. It was gutting really.”
As bleak as the situation looked, Hereford’s football story was far from finished.
The community spirit and love for the game still burned brightly. Rather than give up, the fans wanted to rally round and finally get their club back.
In the background, interested groups had already been on manoeuvres – five benefactors were willing to put in £50,000 each. While it was too late to save Hereford United, a new club was ready to rise from the ashes – Hereford FC.