Matt Healey continues the series.
Chris Hargreaves was born in Cleethorpes on the 12th May 1972. He started his career at Grimsby Town, he later moved to Hull City and West Brom and would join Hereford United on loan in February 1996.
Hargreaves told me “I just wanted to play first team football. I knew of Graham Turner’s interest and there were a good group of lads at Hereford, we were mid table when I arrived but we then went on an incredible run and made the play offs”
Hargreaves would score a couple of important goals during this rise up the table. He slotted home the winner in a 1-0 win at Scunthorpe on the 9th March 1996.
He was also on the scoresheet as Hereford made it six wins on the bounce with a 2-1 victory at Mansfield Town on 16th April 1996.
Alongside Hargreaves was veteran striker Steve White who two seasons earlier had been playing in the Premier League with Swindon Town.
“He was a great guy was Steve White, proper old school character, he was brilliant in front of goal, I learnt from him as well not to get down if a chance didn’t go in, he was fantastic as he told me another opportunity would always soon follow as long as I kept working hard”
Hereford would reach the 3rd Division Play Offs, but were defeated 2-1 in both legs by Darlington.
“I played the first leg, but got injured after 20 minutes and got subbed, I went up with the squad to Darlington for the 2nd leg, we had a good team of experienced professionals like Nicky Cross, Tony James and Richard Wilkins and younger players like Jamie Pitman and Gareth Stoker”
Hargreaves would sign a two year contract at Edgar Street that summer and joined permanently from West Brom. Optimism was high and over 1,000 supporters travelled to Fulham for the opening day 1-0 defeat on August 17th 1996.
The Hereford United squad had major surgery that close season. The likes of Steve White, Richard Wilkins, Tony James, Nicky Cross, Tony Pounder and Neil Lyne had moved on, and as well as Hargreaves the new intake at Edgar Street included Quentin Townsend, David Norton, Adrian Foster, Gavin Mahon and Ian Foster. Plus goalkeeper Andy deBont who had been on loan the previous campaign had now signed permanently.
Hargreaves scored the 2nd goal in a 3-0 win over Rochdale on the 21st September 1996.
Hereford had gone from being a couple of points outside the play off positions at the end of October 1996, to being entrenched in a relegation battle. In a miserable run of form thirteen matches heralded a shocking record of ten defeats and three draws.
3 points out of a possible 39 were achieved. It was Hereford United’s worst Football League set of results. Hargreaves scored the winner to end the jinx in a 1-0 win at Cambridge United on the 25th January 1997.
Hargreaves was also on the scoresheet in a 3-2 win at Barnet on the 8th February 1997. The Bulls had started to turn the corner and achieved a very respectable 10 points out of a possible 12 and seemed destined for mid table.
Hereford then lost on loan midfielder Carl Beeston who was recalled by Stoke City. Enforcer Keith Downing had also had to retire due to a recurring back problem, and with Gareth Stoker now at Cardiff City. The Bulls were light in experience in the middle of the park and were to lose form. Brighton who had seemed dead and buried around Christmas were now picking up points and building momentum.
There were four games to go, and Hereford were five points ahead of Brighton, but it was still extremely edgy and anxious. Next up was a 1-1 draw at Scarborough on the 12th April 1997, then another 1-1 draw, this time at home to Torquay a week later.
Brighton had closed the gap and with two games to go Hereford were three points ahead of them. Brighton though had a better goals scored column. Usually when a team is level on points, the usual system of goal difference would kick in, but that season it was changed to goals scored, and with Hereford scoring less than Brighton it made for a very nervous time at Edgar Street.
On the penultimate weekend Hereford would lose 2-1 at Leyton Orient on the 26th April 1997, whereas Brighton beat Doncaster Rovers 1-0 in a highly charged emotional final game at the Goldstone Ground (The ground was demolished the following season) Brighton were now ahead of the Bulls going into the final game.
Hargreaves continued “Missing out on promotion was a major reason I signed, I thought we would kick on that season, but it turned out to be a horrific time, we lacked leadership that season and losing Steve White to Cardiff City was massive. Adrian Foster did his bit with scoring goals, but we seemed to lose a lot of confidence, we had a lot of things go against us and we then were in a situation where we had to beat Brighton on the final day to stay up”
I asked Hargreaves his memories of the morning of the Brighton game.
“It was horrific for everyone, I don’t feel as bad about it now as Hereford recovered and would later play Brighton in League One about ten seasons later, but at the time it was awful, we had chances to win the game, but in the 2nd half Brighton got stronger and got the draw with that Robbie Reinelt goal. It was a terrible day, riot police, police horses and helicopters in the air. There was massive interest from the media that day. Those type of games make you or break you, a lot of the players who were in the Hereford team that day would never play in the Football League again”
Hereford were tragically relegated from the Football League on 3rd May 1997. In an end of season shootout. The final game of the season was against Brighton. To stay in the Football League Hereford needed to win. Brighton needed a win or a draw. The game ended 1-1.
Despite accruing 47 points, which would normally most seasons keep you up. It was sods law that in the 1996/1997 season the rules had changed and if it had been goal difference and not goals scored Hereford would have survived.
Hargreaves started 1996 as what is now a Championship player with West Brom. The summer of 1997 he would be playing in the GM Vauxhall Conference (Now National League)
“I’ll tell you now I didn’t want to do it, back then the Conference was spit and sawdust, proper non league grounds. Nowadays you’ve got the likes of Wrexham, Grimsby, Chesterfield, Southend, Stockport etc who are all in my opinion League One clubs and get crowds of 8-9000, but back then we were going to places like Leek Town, Stalybridge, Farnborough and Northwich Victoria. We were the big club and everybody wanted us as a scalp”
Hereford would lose the first game of the season 2-1 to Welling. The battle hardened visitors played a physical and direct style, with three formidable crop haired specimens in the centre of defence and it was a baptism of fire for The Bulls.
“At first we struggled to cope with the physicality of the league, but over time we adapted and Graham Turner changed the personnel, we reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup and lost to Tranmere Rovers who were then in what is now The Championship, but from about February time we really kicked on, sadly there were no play offs and Halifax Town ran away with the title. I scored 5-6 goals that season and had a really good campaign personally”
Hargreaves scored the winner in a 2-1 local derby win over Cheltenham Town on the 13th April 1998.
He would leave Hereford that summer and link up with Plymouth Argyle.
“Graham Turner offered me a new contract but football is such a short career and I wanted to return to the Football League”
Hargreaves would then also play for Northampton Town, Brentford, Oxford United and Torquay United.
He also managed Torquay from 2014-2015.
He also became an author with his book Wheres your Caravan which documented his career.
“It sold thousands of copies. If i did it now I would have done things differently and not put certain things in, but I did it all myself with no ghost writers. I had been writing a column for the local newspaper and I had the idea to write a book”
Hargreaves was recently working at Bristol Rovers in the youth academy and loaned Jamie Egan to Hereford FC this season.
“I speak to Josh Gowling a lot, the Hereford fans have been through the mill so much over the years. The National League North is a tough league, there’s teams with huge budgets, but Hereford have such a fantastic support, having the training base in the Midlands means they can attract more players”
Hargreaves is currently working as a pundit for BT Sport and is looking for a managerial role “I just want to get back in the dugout, theres 1000’s of managers looking for work, so I need to showcase what I can do and hopefully get that opportunity”
I wrap it up by asking if he still speaks to any former Hereford players “It’s strange as you’ve got the likes of Dean Smith managing in the Premier League and Keith Downing is a highly respected coach, but others seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Occasionally the odd one crops up on social media and I noticed John Brough was on there the other day. Hereford was a great club for me and I loved my time there, the supporters have been through so much over the years and they deserve to get back in the Football League”
Photos supplied by Ron Parrott, MH Archive and Chris Hargreaves
