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HERTFORD TOWN LEGENDS - No. 1
DAVE WHITEHEAD
I have to start this series with the man who caused me to become a Blues' fan.
I moved into the area in 1993 and originally used to watch Ware if they were at home! Buryfields, Dave Crate, Gary Riddle, goal a game Damon Miles, Dave Farenden and all! I had spent the previous 10 years as a director and secretary of Baldock Town, a club with big ideas (who eventually disappeared up their own .....) and it was really nice just to watch local football with none of the pressures of actually having to help run the club. I remembered Hertingfordbury Park from my Baldock days - twice we had been humbled there, on one occasion 4-1 in the Herts Senior Cup when we were supposedly higher standard. A certain Paul Fairclough was Hertford manager!
Anyway, I began going down to the Park when Ware were away, and couldn't help but notice that virtually every Hertford goal was scored by a "jack the lad" called Dave Whitehead. Usually he score more than one and usually the opponents scored more than he did! But he was a treat to watch - he rarely scored ordinary goals - his were worth the admission price every time!
Thanks to supporter David Wrenn's wonderful written record of Hertford Town games played since 1968, I have pieced together Dave's scoring record between his opener in 1991 and 1999, when he scored his last goal for the Blues. Typically, Dave went out with a brace on 15 April 1999, away at Hungerford Town - you guessed it, Hungerford scored seven! (since I wrote this, a former chairman has pointed out that Dave played one game at the end of season 2000/2001, when he was persuaded to turn out in an emergency despite having been treated so shabbily by Mike Schulz - rather spoils my story but well worth mentioning!)
In all the wee man scored 216 time in competitive matches for Hertford (158 league, 58 cup. I haven't yet been able to find out how many games he played but I suspect that he scored at more than a goal a game.
He did, of course, become player-manager, and in 1997/98 he won promotion to Div 2 when Blues had their best season in years, fininshing runners-up in Division 3 to Hemel Hempstead. Dave made a great start to the Div 2 season as manager before the money ran out and his team was broken up. He soldiered on that season and Blues were unluckily relegated as third from bottom. New Chairman Mike Schultz had bigger ambitions and didn't retain Dave's services. He went to Potters Bar Town and later managed London Colney. As far as I know, Dave is still playing, at Whitewebbs, I think.
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