{"id":4210,"date":"2016-05-15T14:13:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T14:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=4210"},"modified":"2016-05-16T05:38:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T05:38:37","slug":"the-bulls-are-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=4210","title":{"rendered":"The Bulls are back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steve<\/a>

Steve p2008\/Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Next week, Ronaldo is in town. No, not the one you might be thinking of but around a ton of beef and a champion in his own right whose proper name is Hawkesbury Ronaldo. The Hereford Bull will be paraded around the pitch at Wembley \u00a0before the match between Hereford FC and Morpeth Town in the FA Vase final.<\/p>\n

Because if you thought that Leicester’s recent performance in the Premier League was the stuff that dreams are made of (on a different level it’s been compared to Aldi or Lidl eating into the share of their more established high street competitors), well, a similar story is unfolding in the sport’s lower echelons.<\/p>\n

Leicester managed its coup without the major funding of its peers. In Hereford FC’s case, it didn’t even have a couple of millionaire Thai businessmen covering its back.\u00a0In its previous incarnation as Hereford United\u00a0it was central to the local community. It had its high points, FA cup victories such as the one against Newcastle in 1972, but its low points, too.<\/p>\n

Originally a non-league club, it battled its way up through the divisions, fewer than seven years ago hosting Leicester City in League One, and then through a combination of poor results, lack of investment, mismanagement and rumours of corruption, it slid down. It was put into administration in December 2014 after failing to pay a tax bill, its then owner saying he couldn’t make it to the high court because he was stuck in traffic.<\/p>\n

Hereford’s heart, or to stretch the simile a bit further, its favourite corner shop, was to be shut down and replaced with a shopping mall.\u00a0The stadium in Edgar Road was a sad and sorry sight, with weeds growing and broken windows. But the community refused to let it die. A group of fans and local businessmen resurrected the club in the summer of 2015 as Hereford FC, commonly known as the Bulls.<\/p>\n

And now, would you believe it, they’re off to Wembley! In its 90 years of existence as Hereford United the club never made it thus far while attendances since its rebirth have been in the thousands in a division more likely to attract crowds of dozens or sometimes hundreds. This is particularly evident at Wembley, where Hereford supporters have bought more tickets for the day, around 14,500, than any others (the FA Trophy final between Halifax and Grimsby will also take place there later the same day).<\/p>\n

To give some sense of perspective, the population of Hereford is around 50,000 so over a fifth will be in North London next weekend – and our family will be among them. Yes, Dame Mike is a Herefordian and we have been following the team’s phoenix-like behaviour with glee.<\/p>\n

The tickets have arrived, we are meeting friends who are coming up for the weekend, and whatever the result, we’ll be celebrating an achievement that puts all the shenanigans in the Premier League to shame.<\/p>\n

Our bull mascot hats are on order (please God may they arrive in time) and we are trying to remember the words to all the chants. I must admit we haven’t visited Edgar Street this season.<\/p>\n

But what an end to a fairytale spell in football, when the totally unexpected happens. Whatever the result, it shows what can be achieved by those who hold true to the spirit of the sport. Come on, you Bulls!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hereford’s own Ronaldo will appear at Wembley, with dames in support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,50],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4210"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}