An appreciation of Frank Lord

The following article, written by Richard Prime, appeared in this weeks Hereford Times.

Former Hereford United manager Frank Lord has died of a heart-attack at his home in South Africa at the age of 68.

Lord was appointed to the Edgar Street hot seat in November 1979 and was in charge until September 1982.

He could hardly be described as Hereford's most successful manager with his first two seasons in charge ending in re-election applications.

But in 1981-2, things had appeared to be coming together with a 10th-place finish in the league and an FA Cup run which produced a rare foray into the fourth round where the Bulls went down 1-0 at home to a Leicester City side featuring the young Gary Lineker.

The following season, however, a wretched start quickly brought the Lord era to a close.

While Lord's sides were far from promotion-contenders, his ability to spot a player was not in doubt.

Jimmy Harvey and Mel Pejic, two of Hereford's most distinguished players of the 1980s, were both Lord signings while Keith Hicks, Danny Bartley, Adam Musial and Ian Bray, among others, all joined the club during his period at the helm.

His final match in charge was a 2-0 home defeat by Mansfield, after which he appeared to realise the writing was on the wall.

"I've never known a team of mine play as badly as that before," he said. "Frustration is beginning to creep in."

He left with one point from five matches and his successors that season, Tommy Hughes and John Newman, were unable to do much better as the club finished bottom of the old Fourth Division.

As a player, Lord established a reputation as a goalscoring centre-forward.

He began his career with Rochdale where he scored 54 times in 122 league games before moving on to Crewe Alexandra where his record of 68 goals in 108 games was even better.

While goals proved harder to come by at Plymouth, 70 games and 23 goals, a move to Stockport brought a hat-trick on his home debut starting a run of 18 goals in 27 games which ended in a £10,000 transfer to Blackburn Rovers.

There were just 10 games and a single goal in his brief period at Ewood Park and a further short stay at Chesterfield, six goals in 12 matches, before he wound up his career at Plymouth with two more goals in six games.

Lord then began his managerial career in South Africa before arriving at Edgar Street.

After he left Hereford, Lord spent some time as football co-ordinator and, briefly, caretaker manager with Wigan Athletic before returning to South Africa where, at the time of his death, he was a scout for Manchester United.

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