Turner is Mr Versatile

Another look at the build up to the game. This is from the Telegraph by Nicholas Harling:

During their nine years in the Conference, Hereford have overcome the threat of bankruptcy to consolidate under chairman and manager, Graham Turner.

Turner is so versatile that he even turned his hand to selling tickets this week for today's Conference play-off final against Halifax.

So great was the demand from supporters that as many as 12,000 Hereford fans, well over three times the average home gate at Edgar Street, could descend on The Walkers Stadium, Leicester.

The diehards have stuck with their team despite two agonising failures to regain their League status after finishing Conference runners-up. The team went out at the semi-final stage of the play-offs to Aldershot and Stevenage, and Turner hopes it will be a case of third time lucky for his side tomorrow.

"I've held the belief all season that we're a good side," said Turner.

"We've had our disappointments in the last two years but going into the game will hold no fears for us."

Since taking over as Halifax manager in July 2002, following the club's relegation from the Football League, Chris Wilder has steered the side from the brink of financial ruin to the verge of promotion.

"We weren't expected to be in this position this season so Hereford will definitely go into the game as favourites," said Wilder. "We count ourselves as underdogs and that's just being realistic."

Despite Hereford going one better this year, by reaching the final, they might find the omens favour Halifax. The Yorkshire club are the only side to have been relegated twice to the Conference.

Their previous stay lasted four years, as will this sojourn - if they are successful at Leicester.

Meanwhile Brian Viner in the Independent is backing Hereford.

Who I Like This Week...

Graham Turner, the manager of Hereford United, my local team, who this afternoon take on Halifax Town for the right to join the Football League. Turner is not only Hereford's manager, but also the chairman and majority shareholder, and when my colleague Phil Shaw called the club earlier this week to request an interview with him, I think you can probably guess who it was who answered the phone. In short, he is a marvellous football man who devotes practically every waking hour to running this splendid little club, and with all respect to Halifax, I hope he gets his due reward in Leicester today.

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