From the Archives - December 1999

With little going on news-wise so far today, BN looks back to an article from the Sunday Telegraph dated 5th December 1999 and the build up to Hereford United's Third Round FA Cup game against Leicester City.

THE talk was of football, momentous matches, heroic deeds and new dreams, rather than financial crises, sponsorship deals and relocation. Graham Turner was a man reborn.

He was liberated to concentrate on his players, organise the coaching and plot the FA Cup demise of Leicester City on Saturday, secure in the knowledge that other matters could, if only temporarily, be put to one side.

Turner, who once managed Aston Villa, then rebuilt Wolverhampton Wanderers, is now all but lost to mainstream football, yet his responsibilities have multiplied. He runs Conference club Hereford United - as chairman, director of football, coach, major shareholder and much more besides.

When Hereford were relegated from the League three seasons ago, Turner felt obliged to stay, to share the blame and shoulder the burden of reviving the club. That commitment became a crusade and he emerged from the boardroom shake-up with full control.

His hands-on approach to fund-raising even embraced an auction. The club gladly accommodated the servicing and parking demands of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain, though Turner had trouble convincing a jobsworth he really did work at Edgar Street and was entitled to penetrate the security cordon.

The car parks will be filled by football folk on Saturday, when Hereford meet the Premiership club in a third-round tie, invoking memories of their fabled victory against Newcastle United, of Radford, of pitch invasions and all, 28 seasons ago.

"It's just what we needed," said Turner, 52. "I'm particularly pleased for the supporters because they've stuck with us through hard times. They've seen us relegated, then have to sell a lot of our better players to survive.

"People are talking about football again, there's excitement and anticipation. The club has a great tradition of cup football. Everyone remembers the Newcastle match but the club were close to beating Manchester United in 1990, and that might have cost Alex Ferguson his job. Four years ago Tottenham scraped a draw here."

This tie is transparently what Turner needed, too. Receipts from a crowd of more than 8,000, and the BBC's fee for Match of the Day highlights will earn the club £60,000. This on top of the £75,000 Sky paid for live coverage of their match against Hartlepool in the previous round.

Hereford are £1.3 million in debt and raised £140,000 last season through the sale of five players.

Turner said: "It means we can pick and choose when we sell and I can enjoy the football side.

"Talking to bank managers and sponsors is the hard part of the job. Coaching, working with the players, is a joy."

He is convinced full-time professional playing staff are imperative if the club are to prosper, but his part-timers have made crucial contributions to the cup run. Leroy May, a 'strippagram' of some repute, and Robin Elmes, a languages and PE teacher, have scored decisive goals, while Mark Jones, a farm manager and brother of the Southampton goalkeeper, Paul, has made important saves.

Turner had to ask Elmes's headmaster to give the striker time off school to practise set plays and acknowledges that his players will need all the preparation they can muster against a team unlikely to consider themselves too precious for this trip beyond League bounds.

"I could have chosen easier Premiership opponents," Turner said. "But Martin O'Neill and players like Matt Elliott and Gerry Taggart know what to expect."

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