LET’S LOOK AT
HEREFORD UNITED
Hereford United were formed in June 1924 by the amalgamation of St. Martins and RAOC. In august of that year that joined the Birmingham Combination League. They also played their first FA cup match that year losing 7-2 to Kidderminster.
In 1928, Hereford moved to the Birmingham League and in 1932, they reached the 1st round of the FA Cup for the first time, losing 2-1 to Accrington Stanley. In 1939, they were elected to the Southern League, but the outbreak of war meant that they had to wait until 1945, when they finished as runners up to Chelmsford.
In 1949, the Bulls reached the second round of the FA Cup for the first time before losing to Exeter City. The Bulls established themselves as a solid Southern League Premier side and were runners up again in 1951, this time to Merthyr Tydfil. That season they also defeated a league side in the FA Cup for the first time, beating Scunthorpe United 1-0.
In 1952, they won the Southern League Cup, beating Guildford City over two legs in the final. They won the trophy again in 1957. The Bulls reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup for the first time in 1958 after defeating QPR 6-1. In the 3rd round they met Sheffield Wednesday, but lost 3-0.
In 1959, the Southern League was spilt up into two divisions on a regional basis and the Bulls won the North West section but lost the play off to the South East section winners, Bedford Town. Hereford suffered their first relegation in 1964, finishing in 20th place, but they won the First Division title the following year to bounce straight back and in 1966 they finished in third place in the Premier Division.
In 1972, Hereford finished as runners up in the Southern League and they were elected to the 4th Division of the Football League following their exploits in the 3rd round of the FA Cup when they defeated 1st Division, Newcastle United, 2-1 at Edgar Street following a draw at St. James’ Park. Ronnie Radford and former Barnet player, Ricky George scored the goals on that historic occasion. In the 4th round, the Bulls lost 3-1 to West ham following a replay.
In their first season in the football league, Hereford finished 2nd to Southport and were promoted to the 3rd Division. In their first season they finished 18th but in 1976, the Bulls won the 3rd Division title and were promoted to the 2nd Division, an astonishing achievement for a club who were playing in the Southern League just five years earlier. Unfortunately, it proved a step too far and the following season they finished bottom of the 2nd division and were relegated. In 1978, they were relegated for the second successive season having finished bottom of the 3rd division.
The club struggled back in the 4th division and ironically, they had to seek re-election in 1980, 1981 and 1983. In 1983 they actually finished bottom of the football league. However, things picked up after that and in 1985, the Bulls narrowly missed promotion, finishing in 5th place.
Unfortunately, as the 80’s progressed and into the 90’s, the Bulls struggled to get into the top half of the table and in 1994 they finished third from bottom. In 1996, though, Hereford had their best season for years finishing 6th. However, they lost to Darlington in the play-offs. Unbelievably, the following season, Hereford finished bottom and were relegated to the Conference after 25 years of league football.
The Bulls finished 6th in their first season back in non-league football and it was to prove quite a long haul back to league football. In 2002, they finished as low as 17th. However, that was as poor as they were going to get and the following season they finished 6th.
In 2004, the Bulls reached the play-offs after finishing 2nd to Chester City. However, they lost to Aldershot in the play-offs. In 2005, they finished 2nd again, this time to the Bees only to lose out in the play-offs again, this time to Stevenage Borough.
The following season, the Bulls finished 2nd again, but it was third time lucky for the Bulls as they defeated Morecambe in the semi finals of the play-offs and Halifax Town in the final to return to the league after 9 years.
The Bulls finished 16th in their first season back in the league and in 2008, they finished 3rd gaining automatic promotion to League One. Last season, unfortunately, Hereford finished bottom and were relegated straight back down again to League Two.
In 2011/12, Hereford were relegated from League Two to the Conference and last season the club finished a creditable 6th in the Conference Premier.
