The previous Saturday had seen Hereford grab a point at fortress Mansfield (1-1 thanks to a 67th minute Gregory equaliser). Hereford could now consider Mansfield promotion rivals - the result left the hosts 2nd and Hereford 6th.
The Chester game was originally meant to be played in mid December, though the postponement allowed Redrobe to return after a 6 game absence. He scored two first half goals after Rudge had given Hereford an early lead. The game finished 3-1 after a late Chester consolation goal. The game was watched by an impressive midweek crowd of 8795, and the win took Hereford to their highest ever league position - 5th. It was Hereford's 14th game unbeaten in the league in a run which included 9 wins.
On the Pitch: With this match being rearranged and this being the original programme printed in mid December, everything is out of sync. The programme did contain a two page update which unfortunately I don't have. I therefore regretfully inform that this will be even less free flowing than my usual efforts.
Phil Godsall uses Supporters' Club Jottings to highlight the impressive home attendances so far this season: an average gate of 7585 after 11 games, bucking the trend of football attendances dropping in general.
With this being a rearranged fixture, there had in fact been 13 home games by 17/1, seeing the average increase further to 7854. Those 13 games had seen over one hundred thousand clicks of the Edgar Street turnstiles.
Off the Pitch: One thing that impresses given the technology that the producers of the programme had at their disposal is how well they are compiled. However, Bits and Pieces notes that Mott-the-Hoople, who had topped the bill at the previous summer's festival at Edgar Street (see also Peter Andre below), were touring in the US and that Stan Timmins (Tippins) had sent the club a postcard stating: "Keep Winning".
In the Opposition: The pre 1980's had seen some serious names in the Edgar Street managerial roll call. These included Joe Wade, Ray Daniel, Bob Dennison, John Charles, Colin Addison and John Sillett. The post 1980's Edgar Street managerial list isn't quite so easy to compile. John Newman got us playing well in the mid 80s, Ian Bowyer seemed to be getting somewhere, Simon Davey's brief spell was certainly memorable. More recently Peter Beadle had an equally short and memorable spell during the last full HUFC season before he treated us to a few years of real life Championship Manager with HFC. That brings you to Paul Caddis. Due to his presence he feels like he is on the list already - even if he isn't, he has certainly got us looking forward to an upcoming season.
One name that is missing from the above list is Graham Turner; someone who would be at Edgar Street for fifteen years. Wikipedia suggests that GT has managed the 4th highest ever number of matches behind Ferguson, Wenger and Warnock - an astonishing 1718 in total. If you look through his stats one thing is clear: everything he did he did big. In his playing days he did 4 years at Wrexham, 5 years at Chester and 10 years at Shrewsbury. He played an impressive 650 games. His latter playing career saw him do an (equally impressive) Addison as player manager at the Shrews; he successfully managed them for 10 years in two spells and helped transform Wolves during a 6 year spell, before managing Hereford over 700 times. The only blip was perhaps his highest profile appointment: two years as Villa boss. However, if your chairman has the nickname Deadly Doug, you would probably be looking at the rental market rather than looking to buy a house.
Back in 73, 25 year old GT was a Chester player and approximately 300 games into his career. I want to say that this game could have been his first ever visit to ES, however he didn't play (nor in the away game on 24/2), so maybe he was injured? One for someone better qualified than me to confirm.
In the Charts: Little Jimmy Osmond continues at No.1 with Long Haired Lover from Liverpool.
In the News: 11th January - The Open University awards its first degree, an organisation that would go on to decimate my 1970's childhood telly options. In hindsight if I had maybe watched some of their offerings these could have turned out a bit better.
On TV: 9th January - Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads is first broadcast on BBC1. The famous football episode "No Hiding Place" would be broadcast a month later on 20th February. 27 episodes would be made in total.
In the Maternity Ward: 18th January - Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills was born. The celebrities clearly need to start upping their game. We have got the big one coming up in February mind: Edgar Street legend Peter Andre (27/2). However, giving us a taste of the sort of luck we would come to expect as Hereford fans, he was born slap bang in the middle of a 21 day period without a home game.
Click on photos to enlarge.
