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The Woes of Hereford United
This edited article comes from this morning's Independent, written by Brian Viner.
Have you noticed what a bad season it has been for footballing Uniteds? Leeds of that ilk have had the worst of it, but the Uniteds of Hereford, Carlisle, Manchester and Newcastle all have reason to look back at 2003-04 with regret, if not downright gloom.
Let me first examine the woes of Hereford United, for that is the club closest to where I live. Edgar Street is only a 25-minute drive from my house, but to my shame I still haven't been to a match there. And if ever there was a season to break my duck, this was it. Of all the clubs from the bottom of the Conference to the top of the Premiership, Hereford alone scored more than 100 goals. Not that Edgar Street was the place to see most of them. An astonishing 69 were scored away from home. Dagenham & Redbridge were despatched 9-0 on their own turf, Forest Green 7-1 on theirs.
This extraordinary glut of goals yielded 91 points but only second place in the Conference, a point behind Chester City. The third-placed team, Shrewsbury Town, were 17 points adrift of Hereford. Yet the Bulls will not be joining Chester in the Third Division next season, having lost their play-off semi-final against Aldershot on penalties, and that after the highly dubious first-half sending-off of defender Andy Tretton, a decision even the Aldershot manager said was dodgy.
Can there be a better example than this of the iniquity of the play-off system? Over an entire football season, a team playing rampantly attacking football proves itself indisputedly one of the top two in its league, yet it is not one of the two promoted. Of course, there are lots of things to be said in favour of the play-offs; that they inject excitement into what for many clubs would otherwise be a moribund March, April and May; that they give the supporters of lower-division clubs a chance to enjoy an M4 traffic jam followed, if they're lucky, by a final at the Millennium Stadium; that they are a useful source of income.
And of course, everyone at Hereford United knew the deal before the season began. One up automatically, the next four into the play-offs. But still it seems to me that in pursuit of more drama and greater revenue, football has lost, through the play-off system, another smidgin of its integrity.