'Ridiculous' stress levels as Hereford FC survive

Stress levels during Hereford Utd's final game of the season, which saw them avoid relegation, were at a "ridiculous" level, the club's chairman said.

The Bulls secured its National League North safety with a 2-2 draw at home against Peterborough Sports, having at one stage been 11 points adrift. The club had also endured a series of postponements due to a water logged pitch, leading to an end of season backlog of games.

"It was too close for comfort after what has been a stressful season for everyone, I think," Chris Ammonds said.

"The stress levels were off the scale on Saturday, it was ridiculous but thankfully we got the happy ending that we all wanted at the final whistle."

Asked how important Saturday's result was, he said it was massive as the National League North was a tough league to get out of.

"But what we didn't want to do was drop down again because it would probably have been equally difficult to get out at the level below.

"So to have retained our status it's important from a financial perspective, it's important from the status perspective, but more than anything for the supporters I just didn't want them to have to suffer a relegation.

"To get away with, if you like, is just brilliant on every single level."

Wet weather earlier this year plagued the club's pitch, and meant the team was forced to play home fixtures in Redditch and Worcester as postponed games piled up.

In February, the team had played just 23 of their scheduled 46 fixtures, with just 12 weeks left to fit all their games in.

Discussing the job manager Aaron Downes and assistant manager Harry Pell had done, Ammonds said the pair had done "an incredible job".

"We threw them a tough task really, 11 points behind with plenty of games in hand but we were basically going to have to play every three days for the rest of the season," he said.

"And they couldn't play at our Edgar Street stadium to start with either, so it's been really, really difficult."

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