Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Home Against Southport In The League On Saturday January 18th At 3.00pm

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

'Helpless'


'Stig' gives his view on the current problems at Edgar Street.

Try as I might I’m finding it very hard to come up with any single word that describes my feelings about the perilous state MY football club is in. Perhaps the heading at the top of the page fits best.

Since attending my first game on Boxing Day 1983, (a 1-0 home defeat to Crewe – why didn’t I just walk away then?!!), I have followed Hereford United Football Club through good times and bad (mostly) as much as my life and my time has allowed.

I’m not as committed as some for sure but I reckon I see an average of at least 20 games every season. And when I’m not at a game to be honest our result is the only one I’m particularly bothered about. I find it hard to stomach much of what I see from top flight football these days to be honest.

My club’s current plight breaks my heart. I have a sense of perspective about it – it’s only football, I know that – but nevertheless I do waste far too much time thinking about the future, or increasingly the fact we may not have one.

‘How did it come to this?’, is the question I come to over and over again.

I’ve never had any doubt that Chairman David Keyte has only ever had the best interests of my club at heart and am genuinely grateful he took the club on and has ploughed so much money in. However, the fact he appears unwilling to take any responsibility at all for the current situation means my sympathy for him has rapidly evaporated.

I thought the appointment of Simon Davey was a good one at the time – how could we predict the ‘bluffer’ he turned out to be? – and I totally agreed with the money he got together to spend on rebuilding and refurbishing the Starlite Rooms Social Club to improve our structure off the field.

Other things I did not agree with – giving Jamie Pitman a permanent contract and not getting rid of him early in the 2011/12 season for example – but everyone makes mistakes.

However, you’re supposed to learn from your mistakes and I’m sorry but I can’t see this has been the case. Even now I cannot get my head round how much money we continue to lose on a weekly/monthly basis. Yes, we get no money from the Football League now but to still be losing £30,000 a month up until very recently is just mind-blowing.

But wallowing in the past is going to get us nowhere I suppose. It’s my club’s future I care about now.

My son, Freddie, comes to matches with me now and he’s started to care as much as I do. Too much. He’s known little but misery so far (apart from the FA Cup win over Shrewsbury Town) and I want him to experience some good days. To share an experience like the Play-Off Final win or a cup game against a Premier League team with him would just be magnificent. Sadly, I’m now faced with a situation where we may not have a club to support together, let alone matches to go and enjoy.

We need a plan and we need a leader. Right now we have neither.

Personally I’d explore every possible avenue to avoid liquidation and if administration and dropping down a division is our best option lets just do it. I realise it won’t be straightforward but most of our debts are to the current board so lets try to work with them to try to secure a future.

That could mean the Chairman walking away but I realise with the money he’s invested that would be hard. However, my club will die on his watch if drastic action is not taken, as he alienates more and more people – even those, like me, who’ve supported him until now – on a daily basis.

If we formulate a plan that sees us focus on paying our football debts in the short-term – if that’s what’s required to ensure Conference North or South status next year – then perhaps we can make longer-term plans to deal with the rest of this sorry mess. Personally, I feel our loyal band of supporters would muck in and support a plan of this sort if it gives us the chance of survival.

However, the strength of feeling is now so strong that I can’t see this happening while the current Chairman is involved. Confidence in him is shot – which saddens me greatly – but I completely understand why. And to be fair, although I bear him no malice, these days I find it hard to disagree.

As I said, ‘helpless’ is the best word that sums up my feelings right now and it comes from the plain fact that I have no answers.

And what I want are answers. Or just one giant answer to allow us to be a football club again. My football club.

I’ve written the above without really going back through it much so it may not make sense. If it doesn’t I apologise. That’s what football does to you though. It turns grown men into children and rational adults into emotional wrecks.

Right now I am both a grown man and a child. And a rational adult and an emotional wreck.

And it’s all because I care passionately about the future of my football club. Our football club. Hereford United Football Club.

And more than anything I want it to survive.