ASIDE from wondering where the 'United' had disappeared from at Edgar Street, any time-travelling county football fan who had arrived in the present day from the 1970s would have plenty of questions to ask about the contemporary scene.

Our current top teams in the city, Westfields and Pegasus had already moved outside Herefordshire football and contested a local derby in the Premier Division of the Worcester League in the 1975-6 season.

They were joined the other side of the Malvern Hills by Hinton and Weston-under-Penyard while Kington Town were playing in the Mid Wales League but, by and large, it was still relatively rare in those days for clubs to leave the security of the county football scene.

A simple glance at the fixture list shows Saturday football to be in a much healthier position than it is now.

Around 60 teams would see action in the Herefordshire League on a Saturday afternoon with four divisions below a 14-strong Premier Division.

And it begs the question of what happened to those clubs, many of them long-established on the county scene.

One or two have moved onwards and upwards, some have been reconstituted in another form but many have simply disappeared into history with the grounds which once reverberated with shouts and whistles, fun and laughter now overgrown and uncared for.

From that Premier Division of four decades ago, Bromyard Town, Lads Club and Hay have all now moved up to a higher level although not, in some cases, without the odd hiccup along the way.

Ewyas Harold and another Hinton side - called Hinton Youth Club because of the restriction on reserve teams playing at the highest level of local football - were competing, then as now, in Herefordshire's top flight along with Kingstone, which still supports a couple of Saturday teams lower down the scale, while Withington have recently revived.

But others of the calibre of Sutton Utd, Ross Utd and Llangarron, all of whom were opponents to be feared over a period of many years, have now vanished along with the likes of Mathon, Dymock and Credenhill.

Dales Utd were one of a number of works-based teams in the league who have now disappeared - a glance further down the divisions reveals Wiggin, Painters, Bulmers, Aeroparts and Woodcemair all of whom have long vanished into history.

Mushet, from the Forest of Dean, have returned over the border into Gloucestershire but there's an even longer list of Herefordshire villages who had their own team 40 years ago but who now must travel in search of their sport - Dorstone, Walford, Brockhampton, Bredenbury, Stoke Prior, Bosbury, Longtown, Wellington Heath, Staunton, Leysters, Allensmore and Peterstow - while Ross, then evidently such a hotbed of football has lost Ross Gunners and Woodville.

RAF Hereford, Widemarsh and Northend join the ranks of defunct city clubs from 40 years ago.

Of course, many other clubs have come and gone over the years - just 17 seasons ago, for example, the HFA handbook made mention of no-longer-active village clubs Bishops Frome, Eastnor, Leintwardine Colts, Madley, Marden, Orcop, Pencombe, Richards Castle and Skenfrith all of whom had teams either on a Saturday or in the Sunday League where Greyhound, now also part of history, were one of the leading lights.

The hope must be that, with so many young people taking part in the sport on a weekly basis in the junior league, there will be a sufficiently strong flow of players coming through to ensure that traditional weekend football will continue to exist. And that the flow of young players will help, hopefully, clubs revive to greater numbers than are currently represented on a Saturday and Sunday.

Is your team one of those which has vanished? Tells us your memories to news@herefordtimes.com