LAST season's promotion and relegation shake-up has provided United with a chance to renew acquaintance with five old - and in some cases very old - friends, writes RICHARD PRIME.

With the relegation of Shrewsbury Town and Exeter City from the Nationwide League and the promotion of Tamworth, Accrington Stanley and Aldershot Town from, respectively, the Doc Martens, Unibond and Ryman leagues, 10 particularly entertaining games are in prospect.

United's link with Stanley, one of football's most celebrated names, goes back more than 70 years.

Few would have predicted how the Bulls would become one of the most famous FA Cup giantkillers when they reached the first round proper for the first time back in 1932 to be paired with - Accrington.

Sadly for United there was to be no happy ending as a debatable penalty ended their interest in that season's competition 2-1.

Remarkably, United's rivalry with Tamworth - their opponents on this season's opening day - goes back even further.

Way back in 1924, the clubs were paired in Hereford's first season in competitive football, entertaining the Staffordshire club in just their seventh Birmingham Combination fixture.

A repeat of that long-ago season's results would do nicely - a double for Hereford - but two Hereford old boys, Rob Warner and Mark Turner, the United director of football's son, will be doing their best to ensure an alternative outcome.

Birmingham League days marked the club's first encounters with Shrewsbury Town and since those days back in the 1930s a keen rivalry has grown up between the clubs.

For Town old boys, Andy Tretton, Steve Guinan and Dean Craven, there's certainly going to be a little edge to the two meetings this season and Graham Turner, player-manager at the Gay Meadow around 20 years ago, will no doubt be keen to put one over on the club where he made more than 300 league appearances.

The FA Cup provided United's first meeting with old League rivals Exeter City but contact was renewed in the Bulls' first league season when the clash between the two sides featured on ATV's Star Soccer - a rare accolade for a Fourth Division match in those days.

The Bulls were then well on the way to promotion but the darker side of the coin was revealed some 24 years later when a home defeat by the Grecians set United on the slippery slope which would lead to relegation from the league.

By then, Aldershot, who were promoted along with United back in that 1972-3 season, had also suffered the ultimate indignity of losing their league status. But in their case it was even worse for the financial woes that had dogged them over the years forced the club to the wall.

Their revival since then under the name Aldershot Town has seen them climb through the Ryman league to the threshold of the Football League that they graced for so many years.