Continuing BN's look back at Hereford United's first week in the Conference back in August 1997 - unfortunately it didn't start very well for the Bulls on the pitch.
Here's a match report written by Peter Povall.
Hereford United made a poor start to their Conference season in front of a bumper 3132 crowd.
Hereford were physically dominated throughout the first half of the match by Welling who were expected to be an easy first scalp on the run back to the league.
Wellings lead came in just the 4th minute when captain Paul Copley headed neatly into the back of the net from a Barry Lakin corner.
The assault by Welling escalated and they made their second in the 27th minute thanks to Andy DeBont failing to hold a cross, leaving Mark Cooper looking at an empty net which was just asking for the ball.
After the break Hereford pushed on the pace and managed to maintain more control of the game forcing some 10 corners, but the Welling defence was strong, and held until youngster Gavin Mahon crossed to Tony Agana who powered home a shot from the edge of the box.
Hereford continued to pressure the Welling defence but almost lost a further goal as Welling substitute Colin Simpson broke away leaving Andy DeBont to push his shot away.
Hopefully Hereford will now concentrate on the job at hand and present some useful results so that the present support is maintained, and the move back to the league is as swift as possible.
Starting XI: Debont, Rodgerson, Fishlock, Matthewson, Norton, Walker, Hargreaves, Agana, Grayson, Foster, Mahon.