It was a total wash-out for the Hereford U-18 side at Dudley on Monday night with the match abandoned due to a thunderstorm and heavy rain after 75 minutes had been played. With the young Bulls 3-1 up the league will have to decide whether the result will stand.
Simon Wright was at the Dell stadium.
The home ground is essentially a training pitch with no spectator facilities, yet this is the third time I’ve seen a young Hereford side here.
My evening started with being recognised by both Dudley Town coaches. In years gone by, they were apparently among my avid fanzine customers. With relationship fully established, they were very happy to talk about their set up. Their U18’s has a photographer, a videographer and a colour programme produced for each game. Their team was young and included several U16’s. They included 3 members of the Weston family with a fourth member doing the coaching.
Hereford by contrast were older but short on numbers for every reason you can think of really. They had a bare 11 but with no substitutes. There were 3 debutants, Luc Samuels, William Morris and the mysterious Arthur Bell, a completely new name.
With heavy rain forecast and no cover, Radio Hereford’s Frank Williams fashioned his own cover with a tarpaulin. The first half was mainly Hereford who looked more powerful and with more “nous”. Zach Johnstone put us ahead early on, finishing off a fine pass from Morro Morris. Johnstone added a second, shortly before the break, astutely making the most of a short back pass.
Into the second half, wide man Charlie Jenkins was on hand to tap in the third goal. Dudley made use of their subs and Harry Weston pulled one back amid some defensive uncertainty.
Soon Cameron Davies was struggling with injury but bravely soldered on as a makeshift forward. With 10.5 players, Hereford u18s were still very much competing. They all put in a creditable shift in hard circumstances and wore the shirt with pride.
With the rain now hammering down, the Radio Hereford team were struggling to keep their equipment dry. The radio tarpaulin bucked furiously like a sail with surplus water going everywhere as Frank appeared to be going down with the ship. The commentary was sounding rather strange by this point- if you could hear it at all.
With thunder and lightning overhead and the rain cascading down, the referee opted for safety and called the match off. The broadcast team were very grateful to the dads of Rory Thompson and Cam Davies for helping us abandon ship. Everyone else paddled to the main building. The paths and car park were both under running water. Road conditions were simply vile and I do hope all our people got home safely. One of those evenings you don’t forget.
The League will have to decide whether the result stands,
Hereford: Atkinson, Morris, Lewis, Thompson, Bennett (c), Samuel, Mee, Davies, Johnstone, Bell, Jenkins.
