Turner confident of play-off push
A feature article on Hereford United has been published in today's Daily Telegraph, written by Nicholas Harling.
If popular opinion is anything to go by, the destiny of the Nationwide Conference title rests between the top three, Yeovil, Doncaster Rovers and Chester City. In any other season, the majority of other clubs would have spent the coming months going through the motions except, of course, those struggling against relegation. But, with the advent of play-offs, there is the chance of promotion to the Football League for a second club. It is a whole new ball game.
The four clubs, Morecambe, Hereford, Scarborough and Halifax, bracketed together on 43 points, the last three of whom are battling to regain lost League status, now have the kind of motivation seldom sampled by their predecessors.
"Clubs in seventh and eighth positions would have been writing off the rest of the season," said Graham Turner, Hereford's manager, yesterday. "But now there is an incentive for any number of clubs to reach the top five.
"This has changed the Conference considerably. It has enhanced the competition, raising the status to the extent that quite a lot of clubs are now prepared to speculate to accumulate. There's now a better quality of pitches, players and teams. There are also people of the calibre of Mark Wright coming into it."
Modesty prevented Turner from mentioning the fact that the recent stutters of Wright's Chester team began with a defeat by Hereford, who have taken 16 points from 18, following a run of six games which yielded a single point. With the help of Steve Guinan's six goals in five games, Turner has been named manager of the month and promotion is beckoning, albeit possibly via the play-offs.
"The Conference was desperate for the extra promotion place," said the man whose one previous experience of play-offs was "heartbreaking". His Wolves team, deprived of automatic promotion by a point, were beaten to the prize by Aldershot, who had finished nine points below them. The system has its critics, but Turner insisted: "I accepted it before the start of the season. It's no good moaning about it afterwards."
The Edgar Street crowds, over 3,000 for both Hereford's last two home fixtures, testify to the extra interest. "There's nothing quite like the relief and recognition of going up as champions," said Turner, "but just imagine the euphoria, especially for the supporters, of winning the play-offs. It's almost preferable."
Even though Yeovil are five points clear, Turner is convinced that the "title is no foregone conclusion". It should though be to Yeovil's advantage that they are not, for once, involved in the FA Cup at tomorrow's third-round stage. But as FA Trophy holders, manager Gary Johnson will want his team to make a decent defence - starting with the third-round trip to Hereford tomorrow week - without falling between two stools.
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