HEREFORD United are facing a fixtures pile-up with 21 games to cram into less than three months.

Postponements of last Saturday’s home match with Dartford and Tuesday night’s visit to Forest Green Rovers will add to the pressure.

And now the trip to Gateshead on Saturday has also been called off due to the North-East club’s continuing involvement in the FA Trophy.

All three games will now have to be re-scheduled for midweek slots later in the season but these are now less easy to secure with some matches already having been fitted into available gaps.

Next Tuesday sees Mansfield Town scheduled to visit Edgar Street, leaving the following Tuesday - February 5 - as the only blank midweek now available in February.

Visits from Wrexham and also trips to Ebbsfleet United and Stockport County have already been agreed.

And high-flying local rivals Newport County are down to visit Edgar Street on March 5.

March, however, is still relatively free with the remaining Tuesdays yet to be filled.

Hereford, though, only need a continuation of the current wintry weather to find that - with two games a week set to be the norm for the remainder of the season - the pressure is truly on.

But there is still some way to go to match the chaos caused by the prolonged winter weather in the 1962-3 season.

Then, the Bulls were unable to play a Southern League match between December 21 and February 23 with the entire country blanketed in snow.

The glut of football which had to be squeezed in - 22 league games and five Welsh Cup ties had still to be completed - inevitably caused a slump at the turnstiles.

Gates dipped below 1,000 at Edgar Street at times as United slid to a disappointing 14th place.

The season had to be extended to May 13 when it finished, as this one is scheduled to do on April 20, with a visit to Telford United.