Step 2…watch out as Beadle’s about! Hereford make it three in a row

By Matt Badcock 
It’s the day after winning the title and Hereford boss Peter Beadle is talking to The NLP while on the afternoon school run.
“I was home at 2am,” says Beadle, as his youngest Poppy, 2, and Joe, 10, fill the background with laughter. “I slept in the spare room because my wife Maz had to go to Manchester at 5.30am. I was up at 4am giving little’un a bottle and up again at 7am to get them ready for school and nursery!
“It doesn’t stop. I’ve got phenomenal staff, firstly with their characters and also how good they are at their jobs. They will be the first to say we’ve got incredible families behind us supporting us.”
Beadle, who has five children including 29-year-old Matt – who played for Hyde this season – Connor 23 and 18-year-old Josh, is well used to great support.
At Biggleswade last Tuesday, Rob Purdie fired in the penalty that crowned them EVO-STIK Southern Premier champions and gave them a third title in the three years since their rebirth from the ashes of Hereford United.
In those campaigns, which started in the Midland League in 2015, they have lost just ten league games and accumulated more than 100 points each time.
Beadle says this triumph is made all the more satisfying that the sides who made up the top five – Kettering, King’s Lynn, Weymouth and Slough – have all got 90 points or more, meaning they’ve had to be at their very best all season.
The fact the Bulls are seen as a big scalp is a good thing in Beadle’s mind, because he says his players know they have to be on their game every single time they step over the white line.
To pull on the Hereford shirt and meet those expectations requires the right characters. And this season they also enjoyed a fantastic FA Cup run to the second round on top of their league exploits.
“We’ve played 59 games this season,” Beadle says. “We were the last Non-League team in the FA Cup and we’ve had so many games to catch up on. When we managed to put those games behind us, we got to the top and we’ve been there ever since.
“That’s testament to the players. They’ve got to have that inner belief, that strong character and desire to be successful. They’ve done it and they deserve it because, without doubt, they’ve been the most consistent team this season.”
Not something that just happens? “It’s not easy at all,” Beadle says. “Sometimes the expectation goes beyond reality. We lost two games back-to-back about five weeks ago. We lost to King’s Lynn at home and then Basingstoke away the following weekend.
“You’d maybe expect some criticism after the Basingstoke game because the team didn’t play well. King’s Lynn, on another day we could have won the game, but we still performed fairly well. You try to educate everybody as you go along – you have to be realistic, we’re not going to win every week. We don’t spend more money than everybody else.
“We have a budget we work to that is very stringent. We don’t have an open chequebook, we don’t spend £10,000-a-week – despite what people think. Our budget is a very good budget, certainly in the top five or six, but I would question if it’s the highest.
“We don’t have a God given right to be top of the league and win it every single season. We have to earn it and do it the right way. We have done that. The expectation is huge. I’ve got no problem with that. Expectation is what drives people and what makes you a winner. If you thrive on that challenge, this is the place to be.
“That’s not a problem for me and my staff. But there has to be a sense of reality to expectations.
“I think the board were spot on. They were looking at two promotions in the first three seasons and we’ve gone up as champions three years running.
“So we are ahead of where the board thought we were going to be. There’s a price to come with that because a lot of our supporters will expect us to go and win it again next year.
“I wouldn’t say we’re going to go in and try to consolidate. We’re going to do our best to challenge and be competitive again, but there has to be a sense of realism. We are a very young football club.”
Whatever Step 2 division they are placed in next season, Beadle is looking forward to a whole new challenge once again.
He says there’s no room to be sentimental player-wise, but is effusive in his praise throughout for how his team have fared this season. Saturday’s game with Kettering was the final at their Edgar Street home and Beadle was expecting a big celebration.
These moments, he says, are to be embraced and shared with everyone involved at the whole club.
Soon, however, the bubbly will have been drunk and the celebration CD back in its box. On Wednesday morning, Beadle and assistant Steve Jenkins squeezed in nine holes of golf where they reflected on a fantastic achievement and started to think ahead to the next challenge.
“We’re under no illusions where we are as a club,” Beadle says. “The big thing for the club is they don’t go down the same route they went down before.
“We’ve been averaging over 2,500 this year, but we’ve got a very old and large football ground to run, which isn’t cheap. We have to pay close to £1,000 every home game for stewards because we need so many. Then you’ve got to find a playing budget that’s competitive.
“So the big thing for us going forward is, we’re so happy with the support we get, but can they start to bring a friend?
“We’ve got a fantastic football club and team to be proud of in the city.
“You look at Stockports, Tranmeres, Wrexhams – they’re regularly getting over 3,000 supporters. Can we get to that?”
 
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday