Result: 3-4 (Redrobe 2, plus Tucker got the goals for Hereford)
Attendance: 4,473
Click on photos
to enlarge.
Colin's Comments: These would be Colin Addison's last programme notes during this first spell in charge, as he was going to leave the club "by mutual consent" in the summer. Perfectly summing up after all that he achieved during a ‘pinch yourself’ 3 years that nothing is forever in football. A player-manager, he appeared 69 times for the Whites, including 44 in the league.
He scored 6 league goals, with a further two in the cup; one
of which, you could argue, was as important as any in Hereford United's
history, as it was the equaliser at Newcastle that secured the famous replay.
Sorry - 25-yard equaliser, to be
more precise.
The article confirms that fellow giant-killing heroes Ronnie Radford and Fred Potter's times at Edgar
Street had also drawn to a close.
All three featured during the season, Potter's career
effectively being ended by a broken wrist on the opening game away to Blackburn; a
game in which he had played brilliantly. Ronnie played an impressive 39 times
throughout the season in the League and Cup -
his last ever competitive appearance was at home to Shrewsbury on 15th April
(4th-last game of the season). Colin Addison's last competitive match was at
home to Halifax on 13th March. He had played 7 times in the league, with a
further two in the early FA Cup rounds.
Addison and Potter were both 33, Radford 30. With off-field
improvements since the ‘70s resulting in
current footballers generally having longer careers, if you wanted to try and
play it cool, you could say we did alright out of them!
No Longer Strangers: An excellent article, if you would like an extensive run through the four recent cup ties that Hereford had played against a star studded 1970s West Ham side. The 1972 cup receipts at Edgar Street would have been in the order of a cool £250k in today's money. The money was flying in (see also a September 17th 2024 Bulls News article on the club’s accounts).
https://bullsnews.blogspot.com/2024/09/old-programmes-1972-73-season-accounts.html
Early 1980s Rothmans Football Yearbooks were still showing
the Bristol City 4th round FA Cup match from this 1973-74 season as the
highest grossing Edgar Street match (£12,666 taken in gate receipts).
Meet The Hammers: Knock yourselves out with this squad. I was hoping that Mervyn Day had played against us late in his career when he played 16 times for Carlisle in the 1993-94 season - but, alas, he managed to swerve our two games. Ex-Bull Tony Elliot played in goal for Carlisle in one of the matches though, which was sensible as he was a goalkeeper.
Bobby Gould would go on to be a player-coach
for a now back-in-the-4th-flight Hereford in
the 1978-79 season. The 32 year old would score 13 goals in 40 appearances,
finishing the season as top scorer, helping Hereford to a stabilising 14th
place finish, before leaving to become Geoff Hurst's No.2 at
Chelsea.
The brains of the outfit, though, were Tommy Taylor and Pat
Holland, who both had a loan spell at Team Hawaii in 1977.
A theme running through the early ‘70s
lower league players was how many of them would go on to grab a few dollars in
the USA. A run through this West Ham squad reveals that higher profile players
also had a taste for it. I believe that the whole US "soccer"
thing imploded at some point - I am not sure
if European players go there as often
now? You never really hear much about America in any
capacity these days in fairness, it is barely ever in the news.
Edgar Street Chatter: Tommy Hughes was the 1973-74 Player of the Season, but a special mention must surely go to the ground staff? The 1970s were perhaps the pinnacle of "mud the great leveller" pitches*, and Edgar Street was not immune, so how they coped with the hallowed mud being subjected to hosting 27 games between January and April 1974, who knows?
* Google "Baseball Ground Pitch"
Season Ticket Renewal: Google would suggest that inflation has increased by approx. 13.5 times since 1974, making a terrace ticket £135 in today’s money, with seats between £225 and £245. Apart from the tickets being comparatively much cheaper*, there was a much wider disparity between the cost of sitting and standing than you get today.
*League 1 (for now) Shrewsbury's adult season tickets this
season ranged from between £400 and £470.
In the News: 27th April 1974 - Manchester
United are relegated from the top flight, losing to Manchester City courtesy of
the famous Denis Law back heel that has recently been revisited with him
passing away in January. Denis Law was, of course, a Manchester United legend,
one of the Best/Law/Charlton Holy Trinity that perhaps had an even bigger
influence on MUFC's fortunes than the aforementioned Addison/Potter/Radford had
on HUFC's.
In the Singles Charts: Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks
is at No.1.
In the Album Charts: The Singles 1969-1973 by the
Carpenters is at No.1.
I would imagine that the above ear worms were starting to
wear people down a bit, the former spending 4 weeks at No.1, the latter 17
weeks. I am in copy and paste heaven, though.
In the Maternity Ward: Presenter Vernon
Kay was born on 28th April 1974.
He's One of Our Own: Stacy
Coldicott was born on 29th April 1974, playing 5 times for Hereford United in
the 2005-06 season. He had been signed by Grimsby boss Alan Buckley from WBA in
1998. Buckley appears in these 73-74 programmes on several occasions due to his
goals for Walsall, including one against Hereford three days before this match,
on the last day of the regular season.
Coldicott would play
over 100 League games for
West Brom, and over 200 for Grimsby, before being released in 2005 by future
Hereford FC boss Russell Slade.