Never A Dull Moment

It’s been over 18 months since I last did any blogging, I’m not sure what happened there, writer’s block or crisis of confidence or whatever, I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure, a lot has gone on at my favourite football club in the meantime.

When I last posted, Hereford United were still mixing with the (relatively) big boys in league 1 (that’s division 3 in real terms). Unfortunately, it was a short lived stay and the club was relegated back to the basement at the first time of asking. Due to the team’s disappointing performance at the higher level, manager Graham Turner decided to fall on his sword and resign from his position with immediate effect, so immediate in fact, that there were still a few games left to play before the end of the season. The chairman accepted Turner’s resignation, the chairman being one Mr G Turner. In 1998, Graham Turner bought the club from it’s previous owners, when it was on the brink of financial ruin, taking on the unenviable task or tasks, of both managing the club and running it, trying to balance the books.
Following his resignation, from his manager’s job, Turner’s number 2, John Trewick was installed as the club’s new manager and promptly did no better at all, which was of course no great surprise, as he had the same squad of very average players to work with, a squad who already knew that the club would be in the division below next season.

A summer of speculation and signings ensued before we were all set to go again, back in the 4th tier with Mr Trewick at the helm. Expectations were relatively high, not least because Trewick had been touted as the man to take Hereford straight back up to league 1 (division 3… remember), all be it by the man who had installed him as manager. You can imagine the disappointment then, when, by early March, the bulls found themselves very much in a battle at the wrong end of the table. Following some head-scratchingly odd tactical decisions, which led to some dreadful results, relegation was a terrifyingly real possibility. A 2-0 home defeat to Macclesfield was the final straw and, on the following Monday, John ‘Tucker’ Trewick was relieved of his managerial duties. So who did the chairman (Graham Turner… remember) turn to, to make sure the club didn’t fall back into the conference? He turned to 1 Mr G Turner. That’s right, the chairman was the manager again, whilst still also the chairman. After little sign of improvement, results did start to pick up and the club moved away from the dreaded relegation spots and into the far less nail-biting territory of mid-table obscurity.

But the twists and turns don’t end there. Having made sure that Hereford United would be a football league club again the following season, the chairman and manager decided he wanted to stop doing both jobs and put his majority shareholding up for sale. On the last day of the season, Turner ended his 15 year stay with the club, 12 of them as chairman, with a home win and the speculation started as to who would buy the club.

After a couple of weeks it became apparent that there were no Arab sheikhs or Russian oil tycoons about to come in and purchase a small 4th division football club. Then, finally, after what felt like a lifetime, on June 4th, the bulls’ new chairman was named as David Keyte. Keyte, a local businessman and one time player for Hereford’s reserve side, revealed that he would be assisted by new vice chairman Tim Russon, best known in the area as a reporter on ITV’s Central News, regularly covering the on and off field exploits of Hereford United. The pair wasted no time in stamping their mark on the club. Their first task was to appoint a new manager. 18 days after they were revealed as the new owners, Keyte and Russon appointed Simon Davey as the new manager of the club. Davey had pedigree, having managed Barnsley in the championship (2nd division). His most notable achievement while he was with the ‘tykes’ was reaching the FA cup semi-final, knocking out first Liverpool at Anfield, then Chelsea at Oakwell, in front of their own fans. There was however, a bit of a cloud over Davey’s appointment. Just 2 months earlier, he had taken the job as manager of Darlington, a position which he allegedly resigned from via email, while he was in the USA at the end of the season. The Darlington chairman certainly had plenty to say on the matter, none of it complimentary towards either Hereford or Davey.

Nevertheless, Davey got on with the job in hand, namely assembling a squad of players, having inherited just 7 from the previous season. Things moved on a pace and before we knew it, hundreds of us were on our way to Crewe for the first match of the new season. More than 900 bulls fans assembled at Gresty Road, home of Crewe Alexandra, to witness what was to be a fairytale start for the new regime. A 1-0 win, thanks to a goal from new signing and new captain, Janos Kovacs, gave Davey his first 3 points as Hereford United manager. But the honeymoon was to be
short-lived…

By the beginning of October, after 10 league games, that opening day win at Crewe was still the only one the bulls had achieved. Added to it was 1 home draw against Gillingham, to give the club a grand total of 4 points, enough to see them sitting rock bottom of the league. Action needed to be taken and, to the credit of the new owners, it was. Simon Davey was sacked as manager of Hereford United the Monday after a 2-0 defeat at Barnet. But what now? Who would be trusted with the job of overseeing team matters? Of course… the physio.

Jamie Pitman has a long standing relationship with Hereford United, going back around 15 years. He first joined the club as a player in 1996 and was part of the team that dropped out of the football league in 1997, before joining Yeovil the following year. In 2002 he re-joined the club for another 4 seasons, culminating with victory in the conference playoff final, which saw the club return to the football league. He didn’t get chance to play for the club in the league again, as he was released after the promotion season. However after just 2 years away, playing for Gloucestershire side Forest Green Rovers, where he was also assistant manager for a short time, he returned to Hereford once more, this time as the club’s physiotherapist. Pitman then, seemed the obvious choice to take temporary charge of team affairs while the club searched for a new permanent manager. Form took an almost immediate turn for the better under Pitman, with a creditable home draw against league leaders Port Vale, which saw a vastly improved team performance. Then came a quite remarkable game at Northampton. By half time at Sixfields, home of Northampton Town, it looked as though normal service had been resumed, with United already 3-0 down. But Jamie Pitman wasn’t going to have that and, an incredible turnaround, the likes of which I’ve certainly never seen before, saw Hereford score 4 goals in 19 second half minutes without reply to win the game. Whatever was to happen for the rest of the season, Pitman and his Hereford side had cemented their place in the history books, in fact, they had written a new page.

The upturn in form continued under Pitman and the team went 7 games without losing, securing their first home win of the season, all be it against much lower graded opposition in the form of Kent league side Hythe Town in the FA cup. They also finally managed to climb out of the dreaded relegation zone at the beginning of November, although by the end of the month, they were back in it again as the unbeaten run gave way to a losing one. The run up to Christmas saw league defeats at Lincoln, Shrewsbury (that hurt) and Bradford, before a run of postponements due to bitterly cold weather meant they didn’t play again until boxing day, where they lost once more away at Wycombe.

However, the turn of the year brought about another change in fortune for Pitman’s men, as they went on another unbeaten run, winning 4 and drawing 1 of their first 5 games of the year, booking an FA cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday in the process, more of which in another post to come. Even after being swept aside by the higher ranked Wednesday side, Hereford won their next league game, the following Tuesday, away at Torquay, to keep the great run in the league going.

Unfortunately, this latest run came to an end just yesterday (Saturday 5th Feb), with a 1-0 home defeat to Lincoln City. But that should have brought you bang up to date with the roller coaster ride that has been the last 18 months supporting Hereford United. Jamie Pitman has been given the manager’s job until the end of the season. He was assisted for a short time by veteran coach Lenny Lawrence, before he was lured away by Crystal Palace. So what will the last 3 months of the season bring? Well, quite frankly, your guess is as good as mine, but I’m fairly sure, there will never be a dull moment.