Result: 0-0
Attendance: 7,866
Hereford United: Hughes, Radford, Bell, McLaughlin, Tucker, Jones, Rudge, Hinch, Ritchie (Gane), Brown, Emery
York City: Crawford, Stone, Burrows, Holmes, Swallow, Topping, Pollard (Butler), Calvert, Seal, Jones, Woodward.
League Position: Hereford end the day 17th, all but mathematically safe. A good point for Hereford given York are second, although York could thank their keeper for making two great saves to keep out two Radford shots. Radford being both the player and the type of shot in this case.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Colin's Comments: Talk of cameras at the game, combined with a now safe Hereford being able to play without fear, meant that a 0-0 draw was perhaps inevitable. The cameras had been at Edgar Street earlier in the season to see Hereford "entertain" Cambridge, a game that also ended 0-0, very 0-0.
Third Division Round Up: There is, I think, a glitch with Ted's assessment of the promotion race? Only three were due to go up at the end of the season, however both the table and his notes suggest that 4th place was a good place to finish. In Ted's defence, this was the first time three promotion places were up for grabs; it had previously been two. One team that didn't need to worry were Bournemouth, who - with their season in freefall - were starting to regret selling all their best players. Interesting to see that the pre-Graham Taylor transformed Watford were a club averaging 6,404 despite having a quite decent season.
EDIT: Someone has spotted that 10 defeats have been airbrushed from the HUFC line of the table also.
In the Opposition: Stockport-born Phil Burrows started his career for Manchester City, but moved to York City aged 20 without making their first team. He would, though, make almost 400 first team appearances for the Minstermen between 1966-74, helping them to promotion to the second division for the first time in this - his last - season. He moved on to Plymouth Argyle where he would play over 80 league games in two seasons, again helping them to promotion from the third flight.
A qualified surveyor by trade, he would then move to Hereford United in August 1976 at the age of 30 - Hereford that had just reached Division 2. He was their only major signing of the summer. He would play 121 times for Hereford, including 110 in the league, finding himself in the unfortunate position (along with Tommy Hughes and a young Chris Price) of seeing the club fall from kicking off the season in the now Championship to finishing 4th bottom of the fourth tier, skint.
Phil's dad and grandad both played for Stockport - his dad being involved in the longest ever football match, a Division 3 (N) Cup match between Stockport and Doncaster that took 203 minutes in 1946.
His grandad played in a league match with the lowest ever attendance of 13 in 1921 between County and Leicester. The game was played at Old Trafford after Edgeley Park was closed as a punishment for crowd trouble. There were in fact roughly 2,000 people watching - however the game was the second half of a double header, tagged on the back of a Manchester United v Derby game, with only 13 paying to watch the second match only.
Chris Jones would go on to write a book about his time at Manchester and York, which was naturally called "The Tale of Two Great Cities". Jimmy Seal would go on to be a milkman.
Edgar Street Chatter: If ever there was something that illustrated how things have changed since the 1970s, it is perhaps smoking. We were some way from pictures of diseased lungs on packets of cigs, and unwelcoming counters in supermarkets that haven't even got somewhere to park the wheelbarrow full of cash needed to "do the deal". Back in the seventies though, no industry embraced the explosion in sports sponsorship quite like the tobacco industry did. They seemingly sponsored everything. Here, friend of football Rothmans were offering to give away a very generous 10 season tickets for Edgar Street for the following season.
Another slightly healthier pastime that has changed beyond recognition since the 1970's is the FA Cup. Hereford took the opportunity to congratulate Newcastle United on reaching the FA Cup final before revealing that the semi-final winning team contained eight players that featured in the famous giant killing game two years previously.
Supporters' Corner: News that the Football League-launched Spotball competition has died a death.
In the News: 6th April - The 19th Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Dome in Brighton, won by ABBA with Waterloo.
In the Singles Charts: Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks is at No.1. I am sure that went on to be some kind of chant, must have been that era as well, as I think it ended with a line about running too fast.
In the Album Charts: The Singles 1969-1973 by the Carpenters is at No.1.
