Hereford On The Brink

Hereford United's plight has featured in several national papers over the past few days.

Here's how the Daily Mail reported the story:

There is a stand at Hereford United’s Edgar Street stadium that was built with the money generated by their giant-killing exploits of 42 years ago.
Ronnie Radford’s rocket stunned Newcastle United and created an FA Cup legend that is still recognised today with an award handed out before each final at Wembley to the team who can claim that season’s greatest shock.
But that stand, the last renovation at the ageing ground, has been a lonely place on match days this season.
Crowds are down and cash has dried up. Hereford are one place above the relegation zone in the Skrill Conference Premier but, more  importantly, on the brink of oblivion.This week it was revealed that the club need to raise £78,000 by April 7 to meet a tax demand - or face being issued with a winding-up order.
For a club in League One as recently as 2009, their slide out of the Football League two years ago has proved tougher to deal with than ever imagined.
Gone is the £750,000 assistance each year from the League, replaced by an annual sum of just £48,000 from the Conference, plus a parachute payment last year of £250,000.
If not quite dropping off the face of a cliff, revenue streams have certainly sped quickly down a very steep hill. Average attendances have dwindled from 3,421 in 2007-08 to 1,658 this season.
Chairman David Keyte, whose father John was chief superintendent in the city when Newcastle, Malcolm Macdonald and all, came to town in 1972, has attempted to cut costs.
Around £800,000 has been slashed off a £1.2million wage bill in two years. The playing squad is threadbare... and they have not been paid in full for nearly two months.
Results have suffered with no wins in 11 games  leaving Hereford four points above Aldershot in the final relegation spot.
Manager Martin Foyle and assistant Andy Porter, who are believed to have gone without pay since Christmas, were dismissed last week and replaced by youth boss Peter Beadle.
Radford, now 70, said: ‘Obviously it’s painful at the moment, the club is in a really desperate situation. I feel so sad. All we can hope is that things can get turned round.’Radford knows a thing or two about beating the odds. It was his goal, a wondrous strike that shook the country and launched the career of a young John Motson, which levelled an FA Cup third round tie with First Division  Newcastle five minutes from time.
Thousands of fans flocked on to the muddy pitch as he celebrated, arms aloft. 
When Ricky George came off the substitutes’ bench to win the tie in extra-time, Hereford forever had a place in English football folklore

Radford, back then a part-time joiner, said: ‘That has stayed long in the memory and when I, or any of the other players, go to Hereford the response is amazing. So many people were affected by that. They make it clear it was a golden period they don’t want to forget.’A campaign to generate the funds required to stave off the winding-up order has started. Social media has been busy with fans raising awareness and every avenue for raising cash is being explored.
‘We’ve sold squares of the pitch at £25 a time,’ said vice-chairman Grenville Smith. ‘A Ricky George square, a Ronnie Radford square.’
‘That went for a bundle more than £25!’ added Colin Addison, who was player-manager in 1972.

The Supporters’ Trust has been very proactive but some fans are critical of Keyte, accusing him  of financial mismanagement by signing off extended contracts at inflated value before the belt-tightening began. ‘The club needs to be overhauled from top to bottom and realistically that’s going to have to start with the chairman,’ said Trust vice-chairman Martin Watson. ‘He’s lost the support.’ But Watson, who himself injected £30,000 of his life savings last year knowing he would never see a return, wants supporters to stick together. ‘Saturday’s match against Grimsby is absolutely vital,’ he said. ‘If we get a capacity you could see £60,000 worth of gate receipts.’
But George fears the worst. ‘If it’s liquidation then the club that has been around for 90 years will cease to exist. Someone, somewhere will come along and start Hereford United 2014 or something like that
‘The fact they will still play at Edgar Street, still play in the same colours and still call themselves Hereford Something is immaterial.
‘It’s the sentimental attachment to the amount of years this club has been going. That is a bitter pill to swallow.’

Radford added: ‘I can’t even think of that. Hereford has got to have a football team. I’d like to stay  positive that somehow they will survive this crucial time.’

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