Monday Comment - View from the Sidelines

Jeremy Waymouth asks for better facilities for disabled Hereford United supporters.

I am still trying to work out if the current situation where the view from the wheelchair section is so restricted is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand we can't see one quarter of the pitch so that's 25% less frustration but on the other hand we may miss that "piece of magic" that all the supporters will talk about for the following week.

I started going to Edgar Street 6 years ago before I became a wheelchair user. Standing behind the goal in the Meadow End I didn't even see the wheelchair section and never ever gave a thought to the facilties on offer. But even then I knew the ground was poor. I went to the conference semi-final play offs at Aldershot and Stevenage and the grounds were so much better. Even visiting Forest Green showed me what Hereford United was lacking.

Then my MS really took hold of my body and a wheelchair became the order of the day. I will never forget my first match as a wheelchair user. My friend drove us into the Car Park and it's at that point you realise there are no disabled spaces. Spaces for Burger vans, Sky television, the Players etc but none for disabled supporters. At both the Bristol grounds you can ring up and reserve a disabled parking space. And lets face it the car park has more pot holes than Cheddar Gorge! By the time the wheelchair had got from the parking space which I think was located closer to Shrewsbury than Edgar Street I had severe spinal trauma from the gravity sapping potholes and then the boulder like stones littering the carpark. Apparantly Tarmac has become as rare as a home win.

So we got outside the ground. And now what? Turnstiles are a bit of a bugger to be honest and I am fairly stunned that some of the Cider loving Herefordians get through them due to their width never mind a wheelchair. No signs telling us what to do. How the hell are we as a club going to attract away supporters in wheelchairs when we dont even tell them how to get in the ground and watch their team get the three points?

Eventually someone asked the guy manning the turnstiles how to get in. It turns out we have to knock loudly on the white doors and wait for a steward. Well - that's been well thought out! So the club want us to knock on a door where on the other side 2,000 people are singing or whatever. At the best of times it drowns out the P.A. system never mind a geezer rapping on a wooden door 150 ft away. After 5 minutes of hitting the door and knuckles bleeding we are let in. Here I will compliment the club on two things. The ticket price is good value. Secondly, the stewards are incredibly helpful and like all Herefordians I have met really funny and jovial.

So we go towards the disabled section. Now when I say section I mean that in the loosest sense of the word. It's a paved bit outside the back windows of legends with awning above us. Obviously as the ground is flat it can only be single file viewing unlike a terrace where you are raised above the guy in front. So you travel in front of the people that are already there until the first avaliable blank piece of wall. The chances are that you have now passed through the awning bit so are exposed to the weather and as we all know Edgar Street has a micro-climate like the Phillipines. Tornadoes, monsoons or blinding sun are all frequent visitors.

So the game kicks off. Hereford attacking towards the Blackfriers End - Pugh takes it up the left wing and beats two and then.................. bloody disappears from sight. He is replaced by a view of the St. Johns ambulance section - none of whom could care less. Then like some kind of weird Sky advert the ball appears into vision arriving in the penalty area completed unaided by anyone. Bizarre! We rely totally on the Meadow End to hear if we have won a corner or not at the Blackfriers End and I have been fortunate enough to see the ball take itself into the bottom corner of the goal - no idea who hit the shot but according to my view it was that fat St. Johns ambulance bloke with the Guinness bottle glasses!

Its half time - fancy a beer - tough! Not sure if I can get into Radfords and even if I can I think it would take years to get to the bar. If we do have a drink then we may need to toilet. This is an experience. Disabled cubicles are in the ladies or gents. Well forget the Gents at half time at the back of Radfords. It's too busy and quite frankly - disgusting. So that leaves the ladies. Now although I am in a wheelchair I am still deeply nervous of enetering ladies toilets. So I knock on the door - nothing! I get in there lock the cubicle door - use the facilties - then a lady enters! I don't want to leave the cubicle in case she thinks I am some kind of mobile pervert - so I have to wait. They take so bloody long! What the hell do they do in there? I heard the jeans unzip and then..............................nothing for what felt like days!!! Eventually she leaves the cubicle and goes to the sink. Now a bloke washes hands - (sometimes) then flicks hands dry and leaves. I dont know what she did but it took weeks. So eventually it's safe to leave. Back to our spot.

Second half underway - the subs are warming up! Right in front of us. The season we had Trevor Benjamin his arse could block out the entire Meadow end penalty area! Subs tend to follow the ball up and down the touchline so without fail they are in our line of vision competing with the linesman to get in the way. Ocaasionally we can remind a sub of his liking of pies of mildly correct the linesman on yet another dyslexic offside decision. But apart from that its crap.

So a game can end 4-2 and we have not seen 80% of the build up or goals. We leave only to be confronted by the car park again that I think only Bear Grylls could safely negotiate and leave.

Maybe it wasn't such good value after all.

I dont know if the club read the forums but the one thing that is said time and time again is more supporter participation in the club. Please talk to us! Why can't we have a disabled supporters group? I know so many people who would come if the had an enabler - why can't the club set up a buddy system? Wouldn't it be great if we could liase with other clubs disabled supporters so we can all help each other out? Maybe even meet for a pint? Believe it or not we have opinions as well! In some cases going to the football maybe a wheelchair users only real social contact in a week - I don't think anyone else could understand how inportant that is. So why make it as difficult and unrewarding as possible?

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