ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH. TUESDAY, 10th NOVEMBER 2026.

Bullies Thwarted at Morecambe.

The latest incarnation of Hereford United visited the Halo Aerospace stadium this evening for the first time.  What did we know about them prior to the match?

Hereford is a nice little market town best known for a number of things beginning with `M’: a Market; a Map and a Museum (of Cider). It is the County Town of Herefordshire and its Cathedral holds the ancient Mappa Mundi – Map of the World – which was produced at a time (seven hundred years ago) when the existence of American and Australian continents at least were not known to the cartographers, who almost certainly thought that the Earth itself was flat. Hereford – set among the rolling fields of a distinctly rural location – is one of the main centres of the cider-making industry in Britain and its Museum celebrates this fact.

As a predominantly ethnically white town, Hereford has a reputation for intolerance against outsiders and disputes with the Traveller Community as well as the owners of Eastern European-style shops in the town. You can sense this if you simply walk around the place, as I have done several times in the past. Hereford natives overwhelmingly voted for Brexit, since which time tensions there have apparently increased, with the football club playing a leading role in attempting to encourage a more tolerant attitude amongst its fans at least. On 26^th January 2026, the club released the following statement following reports of racist chanting in the away crowd during a game at Merthyr which had nothing to do with their Welsh surroundings:

“At Hereford FC we pride ourselves on offering a warm welcome to everyone and we will continue to do that moving forward. Incidents like this will not be allowed to define our great club, and we will not shy away from taking the robust action necessary to ensure that, whenever an issue arises, our entire fanbase is not tarred by the actions of a small, mindless minority.”

The BBC adds:

“In September last year, two people were banned after an FA Cup tie that had to be abandoned following reports of racist abuse from the crowd. Players left the pitch after about 67 minutes of play between Hereford FC and Sporting Khalsa at the Guardian Warehousing Arena in Willenhall.”

Two Hereford fans were banned by the club as a direct result of this incident, where abuse was aimed by Bulls supporters at the players in the opposition team, many of whom have an Asian heritage.

To turn to more positive things as far as English football history is concerned, Hereford United hold an almost unique place in it. On Saturday, 5^th April 1972, Southern League United hosted then First Division (the equivalent of the current Premier League) Newcastle United in a Third Round FA Cup replay at the club’s very basic ground, Edgar Street. The Magpies’ iconic and loud-mouthed England star and Centre Forward – Malcolm MacDonald – boasted before the match that he would personally score a hat-trick against the minnows. But he didn’t – he scored just the opener, which turned-out to be Newcastle’s only goal of the game. We must remember that Newcastle had already failed to beat Hereford at St James’ Park: the game there had ended 2-2 after the visitors had taken the lead after just seventeen seconds. It is a little-known fact that Hereford Full-Back Roger Griffiths had broken his leg during the replay but manfully played-on until being replaced by Ricky George, who was to score Hereford’s winning goal in Extra Time. In the meantime, one Ronnie Radford had equalised with one of the most astonishing goals ever to be broadcast on UK television. In the 85^th minute, on a mud-heap of a pitch, he hit a simply unstoppable shot from fully thirty yards into the top corner of the net despite international goalkeeper Ian McFaul’s valiant efforts at full stretch to keep it out.  It was a strike which seemed to gather momentum from the moment Ronnie struck it and it has been rightly endlessly replayed on the television ever since. As a result, Radford became a household name and Hereford United was suddenly the name on all English football fans’ lips. Their reward was for the old fossils at the Football League to engineer a situation at the end of the season where third from bottom of the old Fourth Division, Barrow – stuck out on a peninsular which was geographically difficult for other League clubs to get to – were booted out of the League altogether to be replaced by the FA Cup television stars.

The club – proving yet again that many non-league clubs were actually stronger than those protected by the Closed Shop bastion of mediocrity – the Football League itself – won the Fourth Division at the first attempt and got to the dizzy heights of the Second Division (what is now called the Championship) in 1975, having been Champions of the Third Division (League One) as well.

After that period, though, United struggled for a lot of its history as a Football League club. In 1997, they were relegated out of the EFL, having come rock-bottom of the pile.  They fought their way back in again during 2006 and even gained promotion to League One in 2008. They lasted only one season there and during 2012 found themselves back in non-league football all over again.

A combination of bad management, characteristically non-existent regulation by the EFL and dodgy dealing at the club saw them expelled from the National League in June 2014. Accepted back into the Southern League, the club was wound-up by the High Court in December 2014 with debts of £1.3 million following a Petition launched by former Manager Martin Foyle, who had resigned after failure by the club to pay him or his squad earlier in the year. He did this with the blessing of most of the Bulls’ fans, who had arranged a boycott of United by this time. So Hereford United – formed initially ninety years earlier in 1924 – was no more.

But fans rallied and created a new club – Hereford FC, which started playing in the ninth tier of the English football pyramid in the Midland League Premier Division during 2015.Still playing at Edgar Street (186 Miles from Morecambe) and supported by four thousand plus crowds (larger than many EFL clubs could manage at the time), Hereford rapidly progressed to the Southern League; firstly in the First Division and then Premiership and were promoted to the National League North in 2018. Since their reincarnation, Hereford have got to the final of both the FA Vase and FA Trophy but lost on both occasions: 4-1 against Morpeth Town in the former competition in 2015 and 3-1 to Hornchurch in the latter during 2021. Last season, the Bulls stayed in the National League North by the skin of their teeth on goal difference alone: they were level on points with relegated Curzon Ashton just above the Legion of the Doomed in twentieth position.

The iconic Craig Stanley and Tom Barkhuizen have played for both Morecambe and Hereford in one of its guises over the years. The Shrimps have yet to play Hereford under its new branding but fortunes against the former club were mixed, including a very disappointing loss to them in a Conference Play-Off semi-final of 2006, when a United side featuring Stanners squeezed home with a winning goal scored in extra time of the second game.

Morecambe will face the new-look Bulls for the first time on Tuesday 10^th October 2026 in Lancashire, k.o. 19:45hrs. The reverse fixture will be played on Saturday 9^th January at 15:00hrs.

Hereford FC arrived in north Lancashire tonight in second place in the National League North, just three points behind leaders South Shields. Their recent form has been patchy though and they have lost half of their last six league games. Last Saturday, however, they got back to winning ways by coming out on top at Chorley by two goals to one. After the win, Manager Aaron Downes expressed the following faith in his men:

“We went to Harborough who hadn’t lost a league home game in 18 months and beat them, and went up to Macclesfield – probably one of the toughest away games in the division with their support base and financial backing – and got a result. So, we’re confident going into the game, that’s for sure. We know that if we play to the best of our ability, we can beat anyone on our day. We’ve just got to make sure we show up.”

At the same time that the Bulls were winning at Chorley, Morecambe were being mauled by Hednesford in Staffordshire by six goals to two. They were utterly hopeless defensively throughout and made the Pitmen look like a team from a much higher level of football. If they were to play even half as poorly again tonight, their proud record of seven straight wins at home would come to an end for certain. This is what Adam Lakeland wrote in his programme notes this evening:

“We know we let ourselves down on Saturday. We were a shadow of the team that had taken 22 points from the previous 10 league games, and fell well below the standards we’re continually working so hard to establish. There is no better opportunity to show a response than tonight, although we know we’ll face another very difficult test. Hereford are a strong side and come into the game in good form, particularly away from home. They’ll arrive here full of confidence and we know we’ll need to be significantly better than we were at the weekend if we’re going to get the result we want.”

The fog of recent times has been replaced by bright sunshine in north Lancashire during the last two days but a cold, dewy mist was again creeping from wherever it hides during daylight to encroach on the pitch and its surroundings by the time the game started tonight. So, on a slick surface where several players lost their footing, the game started.

Hereford are a physically big team that play appropriately fairly agricultural football. They’re big, rough and tough. In Centre Half Kyle Howkins, they had a Man Mountain who was allowed by weak and ineffectual Referee Richard Holmes to constantly break the rules – and get away with it. The Man in the Middle’s performance tonight was unacceptably bad and he simply shouldn‘t be officiating at this level of football. For me, he was constantly in danger of spoiling the game by making erratic decisions, failing to regulate the players properly and being bullied into issuing yellow cards by the men in the white shirts as they whinged; play-acted and feigned injury throughout.

Armed with these tactics, the visitors looked confident early doors. Hereford had obviously won the toss and changed ends in the first half and they had the first attempt on goal after three minutes as Myles Boney in the home goal was forced to turn Kam Kandola’s shot away low to his left for a corner. After ten minutes, another corner to the Bulls was cleared from close to the goal-line by Shrimps’ Skipper Liam Hogan after an attempt by Harrison Iwunze. But the visitors fell behind after almost a quarter of an hour. I was just telling my mate Paul how hopeless Matty Daly had been last Saturday at Hednesford when the ball fell to him after good work by Ruben Curley just to the left of centre on the edge of the away penalty area – and he made me eat my words by unleashing a tremendous shot which beat Theo Richardson all ends up as it flew past him into the top corner of the net to the goalkeeper’s left. It was an absolutely phenomenal strike.

There were half-hearted shouts for a penalty as Paul Lewis went to ground after 33 minutes but Referee Holmes was unmoved – one of the very few decisions he got right tonight in my humble opinion at least.

Having scored the only goal of the game so far, Matty also had the last word when – as Morecambe counter-attacked quickly in injury time from another Bulls’ corner – he was just unable to sort out his feet as the visitors struggled to clear a cross which fell into his path.

So that was it at half time. Morecambe were deservedly leading against a cynical team which was trying to live up to its nickname – and bully them. The Shrimps had looked pretty secure at the back and although Joe Garner yet again offered absolutely nothing going forwards, Teddy Collis and Daly in particular had looked lively up-front.

A reaction from the visitors was to be expected once the game re-started.

It was noticeable right from kick-off that the Management team at Hereford had identified Morecambe’s Achilles’ Heel during the half time break. They concentrated their attacking efforts on Morecambe’s right flank and goalkeeper Richardson constantly booted his goal kicks into that area. Cameron Coxe had a poor game last Saturday: but he was far from alone. Tonight, though, he had an absolute shocker. Right from the off in the second half, Ben Williams (both missing and sorely missed at Hednesford) was regularly forced to abandon his berth on the Morecambe left to compensate for Coxe on the right. After 51 minutes, Cameron was far too weak as he went to ground and hoped for a free-kick as a recoverable ball came off him and went for a corner. It was taken – way outside the quadrant by the corner flag – and as Morecambe failed to clear the ball, seemed to me at least to come off a white-clad arm or possibly even fist as it beat Myles in the home goal. There was little protest from the Shrimps’ defenders so I may have imagined it – but the Bulls were indisputably level.

Three minutes later, they were in the lead. How often does this happen? Morecambe concede one goal and then almost immediately concede another…

I thought Coxe was at fault again as Hereford won the ball and slipped-in Kameron Muir to slip the ball past Boney far too easily.

After an hour, Richardson slipped on the treacherous surface and was lucky to fall on the ball on his goal-line after it had been headed goalwards by Lewis from a Jake Cain free-kick. Then Luke Spokes fed Iwunze on the Hereford left to unleash a fierce shot which Boney did well to keep out with 62 minutes on the clock. He was beaten after 65 minutes as Harry Tustin made rapid progress down the Bulls’ right and slammed a really ferocious shot against the angle of post and bar at the near post as other Hereford players were better placed in the middle of the pitch and he probably should have passed to them.

Three minutes later, however, the Shrimps equalised. The men in red hit quickly through midfield on the counter-attack once more and substitute Marcus Neill did well to set-up Daly to double his tally for the night with another assured strike – low this time – past Richardson in the away goal.

There were a few half-chances after this as the visitors took every opportunity to delay things to take home a point. Morecambe would have won it right at the death – in the ninety-seventh minute – but for a fantastic save from a Neill header by the visiting goalkeeper, full-stretch to his left following the final corner of the game.

A draw was the very least the Shrimps deserved tonight. Despite erratic defending by Cameron Coxe – he added to earlier mistakes with a wild header which looped towards his own goal and then an even wilder kick which almost set-up a Hereford chance near the end of the match. If he spent as much time bleating to the Ref or berating his fellow defenders for his own mistakes, Cameron might do himself some good. But the game wasn’t enhanced either by the Referee, who was an absolute disgrace – to the point of being almost laughable – throughout.

With few other National League North fixtures contested tonight, the draw saw Morecambe lying in ninth place this evening. Hereford remain second.

I don’t know what Adam Lakeland made of it all at the end of proceedings – but as soon as I do, I will update this report.

Morecambe: 13 Myles Boney; 2 Cameron Coxe; 4 Liam Hogan (C); 6 Lewis Baines; 7 Teddy Collis (11 Elliot Newby 65’); 9 Joe Garner (16 Marcus Neill 66’); 10 Matty Daly; 17 Paul Lewis; 20 Jake Cain (Y) (18 Taelor O’Kane 64’); 22 Ruben Curley (Y) (14 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts 88’).

Subs Not Used: 31 Alfie Scales; 19 Ronnie Blois; 24 Luca Davis.

Hereford FC: 1 Theo Richardson; 3 Lewis Hudson (C); 4 Kam Kandola; 5 Will Merrett (23 Billy Phillips 85’); 7 Kezlah Martin (9 Cawley Cox 72’); 8 Harry Tustin (Y) (20 Preston Bitema 90’); 14 Luke Spokes; 17 Joseph James; 19 Harrison Iwunze (10 Danny Waldron 91’); 28 Kyle Howkins; 30 Kameron Muir (11 Fin Holmes 76’).

Subs Not Used: 21 Ollie Lewis; 6 Joe Willis.

Ref: Richard Holmes.

Att: 2,114 (An unknown number from Hereford.)