Hereford due to announce contingency plan over pitch problems

Hereford FC is expected to announce its contingency plans if the Edgar Street pitch continues to be unplayable.

Persistent rain and failing drains have left the pitch waterlogged, with six games postponed for that reason alone.

With drains partly damaged by the installation of the new floodlights during a dry summer, they are also coming to the end of their life.

During Saturday's fans forum in Radfords bar, chairman Chris Ammonds said nobody was to blame for the problems.

Work has started this week, and should be finished on Wednesday or Thursday, to tackle one of the worst areas by digging out a section of the pitch, refilling it and laying turf which should be ready to play on nearly straight away.

A specialist company is currently on site and carry out that work.

But should problems persist, Hereford have been drawing up contingency plans, but these need to satisfy the National League.

Ammonds said: "We're nearly there with that plan. We will give details of that as soon as we can. It's been complex."

He added: "When Farsley were trying to find somewhere to play last year, they found it really, really difficult because if they went to ground share with a team at a lower level, Farsley's fixtures had to take priority.

"For example, if I just said Gloucester, and us and Gloucester were due to be at home on the same Saturday and we were groundsharing, our fixture would have to be priority over Gloucester.

"If it's their ground, they wouldn't be happy doing that, would they? Clearly, that's just not going to happen.

"We are challenged geographically in terms of a limited number of options, in terms of stadiums within a decent vicinity, but we've identified the obvious ones as the possibilities.

"Nik [Marsh, football secretary] is a decent way down the process of finalising those arrangements.

"Our dream is to play as few games away from here as we possibly can, but it's reached the point where the National League have said to us, you need a contingency plan now. 

"And we've got to be fair to the other teams as well. It's all very well us being stuck playing on the occasional Thursday, but that means another team's got to play us on a Thursday as well.

"So, they aren't going to be happy about that either.

"Hopefully, in the next few days, we will be able to confirm information about that once, obviously, it's been completely finalised.

"What I don't want to do is say something to you all in here now and then the plan changes between now and an announcement. Then I look like an even bigger mug than I do sometimes."

During the fans forum, he said the club would lose "a significant amount of income" if they had to groundshare, not only having to hire the venue, but also losing income from other avenues such as the bars.

He also said there would need to be other matters addressed, such as what to do with season ticket holders and how to transport people to another ground, and there would be "really, really difficult things that might need to be discussed".

Hereford, nine points from safety and just three points above Leamington in 24th, currently have up to nine games in hand over some teams.

With a congested fixture list between now and the end of the season, still having 23 games to play, they need to pick up points to stave off the threat of relegation.