Turner Arrives At Edgar Street

Over the next few weeks BN will look back at the life and times of Graham Turner at Edgar Street season by season. For today's article we look back at 1995/96.

Graham Turner was appointed manager of Hereford United in early August 1995. He took over from Dick Bates, who had been in temporary charge since John Layton had left a month earlier.

Out of work since leaving Wolverhampton Wanderers 18 months earlier, Turner had applied for several posts, including Ipswich and Notts County, but had not been successful. Eventually he arrived in Herefordshire. How much he was told about the state of finances at his new club is open to debate, but his budget would be minute compared to what he had been used to at both Wolves and before then at Aston Villa.

To make matters worse, two of Hereford's top players had been sold in the months proceeding Turner's appointment. 19 year old Andrew Browning had moved to Norwich in the previous March for £100,000 and then in June Gareth Davies moved to Crytal Palace for £120,000.

Nevertheless Turner had a good start as the Bulls won their first League match of the season, a 4-1 hammering of Barnet. The game is remembered in particular for a goal by keeper Chris MacKenzie whose clearance went over the head of the Bees' keeper Maik Taylor. However just three days later the Bulls lost a Carling Cup game against Oxford.

Off the pitch troubles continued. In the first week of October the club was hit by a suspected arson attack, which destroyed the supporters' club and part of the main stand. On the following Friday night the club was burgled. At least the Bulls won the following day's match against Torquay when Richard Wilkins scored a 90th-minute winner.

By the end of November the club were 16th in the League. Just 3,528 had turned out for a 'local' derby against Cardiff City which the Bulls lost 3-1 and that was the highest gate to date that season.

However before Xmas the Bulls finally shook off their poor form with a surprising 3-0 victory over Scunthorpe at Edgar Street. It couldn't have come at a better time considering they had been drawn against a top class side in the third round of the FA Cup.

Two home games in the early rounds had produced victories over Stevenage and Sutton respectively. Next were Spurs.

It seemed most of the British Press wanted to interview Turner in the first week of January 1996 and he seemed pleased to talk to them. He appeared happy to be living in Herefordshire. A few words from the Independent:

Turner's wife and children now live in a rented house on a working farm, and enjoy "a good quality of life". While describing Hereford as "a lovely city to work in", he still hopes to take charge of a big club again and, at 48, has time to do so.

He also has an answer for those who might argue that fulfilling his ambitions would mean betraying Hereford. "They asked me if I was going to use this place as a stepping stone, and the answer was yes," Turner admits. "But to get myself back up higher I've got to do a good job here first."

What about the game itself?

"I've done it before, when I was at Shrewsbury, and then we reached the quarter-finals twice, beating Malcolm Allison's Manchester City and Bobby Robson's Ipswich on the way," Turner told the Daily Mail.

"I wanted them to relax, not be uptight. They will need to be if they are to play above themselves."

The game at Edgar Street was drawn 1-1 and the replay was to be eleven days later. In between Turner steered the Bulls to two useful victories firstly against Northampton and then a 5-2 victory over Cambridge. But at Spurs they were outplayed and lost 5-1.

During February the Bulls dropped to 19th position. Turner decided to try and bring a couple of extra players in to boost the squad. Jamie Pitman arrived from Swindon, Stuart Watkiss from Walsall and Chris Hargraves from West Bromwich initially on loan.

It worked as towards the end of the season the Bulls produced a run of form which took then into the play-offs.

On March 2nd Tony James, who had been out for a year with a knee injury, was drafted back into the side and scored the winning goal against Northampton in the 90th minute.

"I'm delighted for Tony, but these late winners are doing nothing for my heart," said Turner.

Then in April a remarkable run of form, eight wins in ten games, pushed the Bulls towards a play-off place, and on May 4th a 2-0 defeat of Rochdale, in front of 5880 spectators, secured that place.

However the Bulls couldn't defeat Darlington in either of the play-offs so would remain in Division Three for another season.

On reflection not a bad start for Graham Turner at Edgar Street. Sixth in the League, two third round FA Cup games against Spurs, and a run in the Auto Windsreen Shield until defeat by Shrewsbury.

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