Ed Dallimore asks 'Why is Edgar Street so important?'
Edgar St is to Hereford fans, what Old Trafford is to Manchester United or Anfield Rd is to Liverpool fans. It is our beloved, spiritual and historical home. It is where our heroes like Ronnie Radford, have written the club and the City of Hereford into the history books. It is where the fans have experienced polar extremes of emotion. From the highs of great victories against top flight teams in the FA Cup and important wins over local rivals, to the lows of crucial defeats and the devastation of relegation.
It is where my dad took me for the first time, as a young boy and introduced me to being a spectator of “the beautiful game”. Where I stood side by side with my school mates and discovered the thrill and passion of supporting my local team and where I felt the adrenalin rush of the electrifying atmosphere of The Meadow End and “The Edgar St Roar”.
When Man United or Liverpool fans tell me how they felt watching their teams come from behind to win The Champions League on the tele, you can see in their eyes, they don’t quite get it when I explain, “I got the same rush “going mental” in the Meadow End pit and standing on “the wall” punching the air and screaming my lungs out, when we scored two goals in as many minutes, at the death, to knock Walsall out of the FA Cup in 1990!”….and I didn’t even realise at that moment, it had set up a plum 4th round tie against the mighty Man United! That is the kind of memory that Edgar St has given to me and thousands of Herefordians and that is why it is a very special place for Hereford United fans.
The Street is also the place where 1200 hardy souls will stand in the rain on a freezing cold Tuesday night in January, to watch The Bulls play out a 0-0 draw with Halifax Town in The Conference while there is Champions League on the tele. Try telling those people, as well as the 35 that have made the trip from Yorkshire, that Newcastle or Sunderland fans are the most passionate in the country. They will laugh at you.
Thousands of devoted fans have over the years, experienced the thrill of the ride that Hereford United has given them and thanks to today’s decision to award the leases to Hereford FC, our local club will endure and history will continue to be written in our very own “Theatre of Dreams”.
Edgar Street is our clubs home and home, as they say, is where the heart is and this could not be truer than for Hereford United.
There was a very real fear amongst some fans that with the demise of Hereford United the company, the evisceration of the dead bull might be the end game, with the home of the sacred beast being turned into a shopping centre with a ten pin bowling alley as the recreational legacy for the site. Happily, common sense prevailed and the true value of the football club to the city, county and its residents was recognised and finally rewarded with the issuing of the leases to the phoenix club. The truth of the matter is, the football club never actually died, when the trading company ceased to exist. That was merely an illusion, a cruel hoax. There is a reason that Hereford (United) football club lives on and that reason is of course the fans, because the club is the fans and as long as there are fans, it will never die!
Now we can look forward to a new chapter in our famous clubs history, although I have a feeling that this close season is going to be the longest I have ever known. The first game of the season is going to be one very special day. Congratulations and well done to everybody involved for their hard work and achievements in recent weeks and months. The securing of the Edgar Street leases ranks in my book, as one of the most important results in the history of our club and one that we can all truly be very proud of because it was “we the fans” that made it happen, by standing together, United.