AS the Vice-Chairman of Hereford FC I couldn’t be more proud of what has been achieved at this football club.

I don’t pretend it has been easy, it hasn’t.

Having been involved right from the beginning I know the work that has been done to get us this far.

In a very short period of time we have gone from liquidation and the risk of losing our stadium to a successful club again, playing well and getting better support that would be the envy of some Conference sides.

From the chairman, the rest of the board, the staff and the volunteers – it’s been a monumental effort.

I include within this the fans.

Someone once famously said when things were not going well at our club that it was the fans' fault and there was no appetite for football in the county.

We now know how wrong that statement was.

This club is now being managed properly – take my area of responsibility which is for the ground safety certification and general safety of the stadium.

In a sense we have been victims of our own success and have had to change tack part way through from an amateur volunteer arrangement to a professional level of stewarding and an infrastructure that meets the demands of a crowd base of 2,000 to 3,000 supporters.

Yes, we do have challenges, not everything is as we would want it to be.

We need to keep the stadium non-smoking and keep the hatched yellow areas free of supporters during games to enable safe access and we need the visibility of friendly but firm stewarding with strong leadership from our professional team, led by chief steward Paul Jones and deputy chief steward Rob Honey.

It’s their dedication that ensures a safe environment and safe return home after a successful result on the pitch.

We also need to maintain the support of all the agencies involved with safety at the stadium including fire, police and ambulance services and I must thank all of them for their advice and support.

So the view from Edgar Street is looking good and long may it continue.

We are watching football at Edgar Street, they are playing in white shirts with a bull on the badge, the football is exciting to watch and the fans have a smile on their faces at last – what’s not to like?