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Kings Langley FC 3-3 Hereford FC

After deciding to forgo the pleasures of Vale Park, I instead took in Watford v Liverpool before a quick six mile dash to Gaywood Park for this Evo-Stik Southern Premier clash. The club’s attempts to get Watford fans to attend both games was a little muted on social media, and there was nothing in the Watford programme about the game. Perhaps they could have tried to get the game put back 15 or 30 minutes to make it easier.

Hereford have just had two consecutive promotions, outdone by the Kings who had three consecutive promotions before surviving on the last day, last season, beating fellow relegation candidates Cirencester in front of a club record crowd of 645. I read that three consecutive promotions matches Chester FC and FC United of Manchester, beaten only by Truro City who managed four.

Gaywood Park lies alongside the Grand Union Canal, which is backed by the Euston mainline, and many improvements have been made to the ground over the past year, including a new 250 seater stand, self-built by supporters out of scaffold poles, and two new stretches of terracing. The pitch is also vastly improved from when I first saw it three seasons ago, one of the worst I have seen, but now that Watford Ladies have moved here, Watford FC have taken over management of the pitch and it is now looking very good, fully grassed and almost completely smooth. The bar is tiny but this is still a village club who are punching well above their weight.

The ground capacity is 1963 and the club were forecasting a crowd of 1000, laying on beers and a BBQ on the adjacent training ground. A handful of police were in attendance. The official attendance given out on the PA was 669 (since rounded down to 661), so a new record, although it did look more to me, especially in the second half when all four sides were fully populated.

As for the match, after all the hype about them, the Bulls were very disappointing for me, very pedestrian and immobile, no pace and not much enterprise up front. The Kings were generally more incisive and quicker thinking and took an early 3rd minute lead, looking comfortable for the rest of the half. They increased the lead on 55 minutes and should have scored a third before Hereford eventually took control and went ahead with goals on 77, 79 and 88 minutes. It looked all over for the Kings but they equalised in the 95th minute, and in spite of the Bulls immediately hitting the post, the match ended 3-3, a fair result.

Most of the crowd were Hereford fans, many were lubricated (still can’t get used to seeing rows of fans holding pints on the terrace) but good natured, although the Kings keeper sat down in the second half claiming to have been hit on the head by an object, something the ref seemed to dismiss very lightly. I did overhear some Hereford fans criticising the ground, maybe shades of ‘PNL Syndrome’ and thinking, incorrectly, they they deserved to be playing at a higher level. They need to always be respectful to smaller and less well supported clubs, and earn promotion back to the EFL the hard way.

Goals at:

Hereford Manager Peter Beadle is quite scathing about his players in the post-match interview. Interesting to hear him say he is finding it difficult to recruit players, because they don’t pay what prospective players think they do, and because players don’t want the pressure of being at a ‘big’ club, at a lower level:

Comments

  • In fairness, Hereford do "deserve" to be playing at a higher level, seeing as though their demise was shocking ownership related, rather than playing or supporter reasons.
    Would love to see them continue their rise, always had a soft spot for them.

  • Yes, I thought that after I posted, not the fault of the supporters at all, I just don't want them to get arrogant like supporters of some nearby clubs have become. Every club is in danger of being taken over by a bad owner, it might only happen several ownership changes down the line, and is the reason why we need to keep this club owned by supporters for as long as possible.

  • One of the sad things, was they fought to just about stay up in the Conference on the last day, and were then expelled for non playing matters.
    Have the name and infrastructure to come back quicker than most of the teams round them though.

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