Hereford is one of English Football's Outposts

Chris Saxon of the Rotherham United Supporters Trust visited Edgar Street last Saturday week.

Here's part of his report.

If you're thinking of booking a British Holiday next summer, you could do worse than select the period around the opening day of the new football season. After the washout that was June and July, true to form the opener against Hereford United was played out in blistering heat thus continuing trends set in previous years.

Our first opponents of this new campaign had also suffered ups and downs in recent years. Last season was their period of consolidation after returning to the League after an absence of a few years marooned in the Conference. They too had brought in a new look team in an effort to improve their final league position of 16th.

It was with some trepidation that I decided to make the long journey south at the weekend. This would be my first ever trip to Edgar Street and might offer some pointers as to how we would fare given that Hereford were being tipped to struggle by the pundits.

Hereford is one of English football's outposts, nestling in the hills which border Wales, their nearest rivals are probably Shrewsbury Town some 50 miles or so north. It certainly seems miles away from Millmoor and even further from my home in North Lincolnshire!

I love visiting new grounds, especially when the Millers are the opposition and if predictions are correct and our stay in this division is to be a brief one, this might be the only opportunity to visit Edgar Street for some years to come!

There's a certain buzz about the opening day of a new season no matter whom you support and no matter where you are. Hereford's compact little ground is no different to any other and it was no surprise to see throngs of supporters proudly sporting their replica shirts as we arrived at the ground. It was great too see so many Millers amongst the white shirted home fans. I'd forgotten how much more opportunity there is to mingle with opposition fans at this level. Indeed, I talked to a number of Hereford supporters about their aspirations for the coming season, they seemed generally upbeat and most predicted at least a play-off berth come May 2008. Their matchday programme is a modest affair and at £2.50 is expensive compared to most club's offerings I've seen in recent years. They are a jovial lot in these parts and the programme seller asked about our club and told us that his family hailed from Leeds!

On the plus side, admission at just £13 to stand and £15 to sit was refreshing given prices at Millmoor and those ticket prices of the Championship years seemed to belong to a different era entirely.

A steep climb up a metal staircase and we were in an old fashioned stand overlooking the ground with an unimpaired view. A friendly steward greeted us and asked about our journey south. "How many fans you bringing then?" he enquired. Estimates amongst Millers fans outside the ground had ranged from 400 to over 1500 so I couldn't be sure. "We've been told to expect about 400 to 600" said the steward.

I was pleased we'd opted to sit down, as the standing area allocated to us was a small corner set well back from the pitch. It was somewhat strange to see that the vast majority of the stadium was standing, something we'd grown unaccustomed to in recent years. On the face of it, Edgar Street needed re-development far more urgently than our own Millmoor!

By the time the two teams lined up for the kick-off, the stadium appeared to be reasonably full and a sizeable noisy following from South Yorkshire greeted the players. Travelling support was officially stated at 673, it seemed more to me and the steward hinted that this figure might ever so slightly understated!

---