There is an article in this morning's Daily Mail which tracks the decline of Hereford United but also looks forward to a new era of football at Edgar Street.
To begin with the article looks back 42 years when Hereford United defeated Newcastle but soon moves onto the situation today.
Here's part of the article:
Today the
Edgar Street ground, in the centre of the city, is a crumbling relic.
Addison’s Bar is billed as ‘Open All Day’ but is now closed permanently.
The Radford Function Suite is similarly unused.
An
A4 piece of paper on the black door under the club badge announces that
the ground, as of this month, has returned to its landlords,
Herefordshire Council.
With
its corrugated fencing and lanky old floodlights, Edgar Street
contrasts with the soulless, recently-built shopping centre — comprising
Waitrose, TK Maxx and Debenhams — near the site of an old cattle
market.
Peering
through a gap in the Edgar Street gates is Brett Parker, a former art
teacher. He and his wife Julia, from rural Lydbury 40 miles away, were
regular visitors here in Hereford’s footballing days.
‘We
came for a day out,’ said Parker. ‘I would go to the football and Julia
would go to the shops. Then we would meet afterwards at five and go for
a curry. What has happened here is bad, sad and mad.’
On the
off-white wall at the Meadow End written in red ink and capital letters
are the words ‘Lonsdale Out’, which gets us into the nitty-gritty of
this sorry tale.
Andy
Lonsdale was Hereford United’s last owner. The club was wound up when,
despite their lawyers claiming Lonsdale could prove he had £1million to
pay creditors led by HMRC, he was unable to get to court because he was
supposedly stuck in traffic.
For
all their FA Cup heroics, Hereford United always had less cash than
cachet. But while Graham Turner, the long-serving former manager, owned
the club he turned a profit through good husbandry.
Turner
sold his majority shareholding to David Keyte, a local businessman, in
2010. From a position of solvency, the club made trading losses of about
£1.5m over the next four years. The rot had set in.
Then,
last May, Keyte sold to Tommy Agombar, an Essex businessman who was
mistrusted by fans as the guardian of a club that is situated on prime
city development land. He had a conviction for lorry theft that meant he
was later barred under the FA’s owners’ and directors’ test.
So the club
briefly fell into the hands of Alan McCarthy, of Alpha Choice Finance.
He was invisible, rarely if ever at games. He was soon succeeded by
Agombar’s former adviser Lonsdale, from the construction and waste
disposal industries, who had previously been convicted of dumping waste
illegally.
By
now the club were in a dire mess. Off the field, they were expelled
from the Conference for failing to pay a £350,000 bond, while former
manager Martin Foyle was suing them for unpaid wages.
On
the field, it was mayhem. Unable to play in the Conference, they
entered the Southern League for the 2014-15 season, using 46 players in
the five months prior to liquidation. Some of the squad came from Spain,
France, Georgia, America and Australia, all chasing the dream of a
professional football career that was sold to them in an aggressive
recruitment drive.
They were paid sometimes as little as £50 or £60 a week, cash in hand. Some even slept in the Starlite function room.
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| On Saturday December 20th The Gates Were Locked - BN Picture |
Although
North Walian striker Cory Williams, now at Chester City, midfielder
Billy Murphy, who joined Bristol City, and local boy Jarrod Bowen, who
moved to Hull City, found a life in football beyond Hereford, many more
players disappeared into the ether as quickly as they had appeared from
nowhere.
So
what next? Herefordshire Council, themselves in debt, are committed —
at least until the elections in May — to trying to resurrect the club at
Edgar Street.
They have ‘invited expressions of interest’ to take on the tenancy, albeit only for two and a half years.
The
deadline for bidders is next Thursday, with the Council due to select
who takes over the ground by March 1, the FA’s deadline for
participation next season.
Rumours
in Hereford say there could be three bidders, though only one is in the
open: a 50-50 split between the Supporters’ Trust and a group of local
businessman led by Jon Hale, who made his money from polythene plant
pots.
Hale
and his group say they are ready to commit £150,000. The Trust, whose
membership of 1,700 makes their backing crucial to any bid prospering,
have about £30,000 in the bank but say they could quickly raise more
funds if the Council chooses them. Martin Watson, the Trust’s
vice-chairman, said: ‘We are glad the last owners have gone. We don’t
see it as the end for football in Hereford.’
If
the bruised supporters should succeed with a phoenix club, it will be
called plain Hereford Football Club and probably rejoin in the fifth
tier of non-League football, the Midland Premier League.
‘A lot of work needs to be done, but we are confident we can do it,’ said Watson.
He
and fellow fans can take inspiration from the old club’s motto: ‘Our
greatest glory lies not in never having fallen, but in rising when we
fall.’
