REACTION | Aaron Downes - Hereford FC 1-2 Oxford City

Aaron Downes gives his post match reaction to tonights 2-1 defeat to Oxford City.

Click on the play button to hear his thoughts.

Enterprise National League North results and updated table

The following results have been recorded in the Enterprise National League North:

Alfreton Town (2) 2-2 (1) Buxton
Hereford (1) 1-2 (0) Oxford City
Marine (0) 1-3 (1) Merthyr Town
Radcliffe (0) 1-3 (2) Kidderminster Harriers
South Shields (3) 4-1 (1) Macclesfield

The updated league table can be found here: https://bullsnews.blogspot.com/p/league-table.html

Hereford’s fate out of their hands after Oxford defeat

Hereford have failed to beat Oxford City at Edgar Street, meaning avoiding relegation is now no longer in their hands.

Aaron Downes’s side needed three points to keep matters in their own hands but will need to rely on other results going their way to avoid the drop after falling to a 2-1 defeat. 

The game got off to a perfect start after a fifth minute George Munday goal, with the Bulla dominating much of the first half. 

But after the break, Harrison Sohna was given his marching orders after two quick yellows, with Oxford equalising in the 73rd minute through Matty Taylor. 

With Hereford under pressure, Canice Carroll added a second three minutes from time. 

Hereford are now five points from safety with just one game in hand. 

Matchday - Half Time Draw 50/50 winning numbers vs Oxford City

Tonight's 50/50 Matchday Draw winning numbers 

#AreYouAWinner 

❗Tickets still unclaimed from previous matches - Check your pockets!

If you have one of the unclaimed winning tickets, please email finance@hust.org.uk with photo evidence of your ticket and we will pay out by bank transfer. Or bring it to Addison’s Reception next home game.

Hereford ahead at the break

A George Monday goal in the fifth minute sees Hereford 1-0 up at half-time in this evening’s National League North match at Edgar Street.

Right wing-back Aaron Skinner was the creator as Munday turned and curled the ball home.

While Oxford looked to hit back quickly with a flurry of blocked chances, the Bulls have dominated much of the half.

HUST Golden Goal Winning Time vs Oxford City

Tonight's Golden Goal winning time... 

#AreYouAWinner 

Save your ticket - if no Jackpot winner... there will be a consolation prize - It Could Be You 🫵

Hereford team news for Oxford City six-pointer

This evening's Hereford side to take on Oxford City at Edgar Street:

Hereford: Richardson, Skinner, Hudson, Sohna, Lane, Munday, Daly, James, Willcox, Tustin, Howkins.

Subs: Lewis, D'Ath, Williams, Oppong, Quansah, Martin, Hamilton

The Great Escape Starts Tonight

Brilliant from the London Bulls.

Five National North League Games This Evening

There are five National North League games this evening.

Alfreton v Buxton

Hereford v Oxford City

Marine v Merthyr

Radcliffe v Kidderminster

South Shields v Macclesfield 

Hereford 13/10 To Defeat Oxford

Hereford's Matt Preston Receives A Yellow Card At Oxford Earlier This Season

 The bookmakers are offering prices of around 13/10 for a Hereford victory over Oxford City tomorrow evening at Edgar Street.

With both clubs battling relegation there should be a good crowd for the game which kicks off at 7.45pm.

Currently Hereford are 21st in the National North League table with 45 points from 42 games, Oxford are 19th with 50 points from 43 games.

As for goal difference Hereford's is minus 17, Oxford's is minus 7. 

Last Saturday Hereford drew 2-2 at Bedford (17th) whilst Oxford drew 1-1 at Alfreton (22nd). 

Hereford's home form is won 7, drawn 3 and lost 9.

Oxford's away form is won 3, drawn 9 and lost 9. 

Recent form:

Hereford LLLWWD

Oxford WWWDWD

Hereford 13/10  Draw 13/5  Oxford 9/5 

Oxford City At Edgar Street In 1948

A look back to 1948 and a game between Hereford United and Oxford City.

On 14 November 1948 the fourth qualifying round of the FA cup threw up a home tie with amateurs Oxford City. In recognition of the importance of the occasion, the programme price was increased from 2d to 3d. The match turned out to be one of the very best ever seen at Edgar Street for sheer excitement, entertainment, and fluctuation of fortunes.

The first quarter of an hour gave very little indication of the thrills and spills that were about to come. Jock Sinclair put United in front after 18 minutes but City shrugged off this setback and stormed downfield for inside-left James to equalise only two minutes later. The rest of the half was a ding-dong battle with play flowing from end to end. Half-time arrived with no further goals.

Charlie Thompson restored United’s advantage four minutes into the second period, and home fans then expected the lead to be consolidated as the visitors would hopefully tire – however they did not tire and it was United who found themselves hanging on as Oxford City bravely took the battle to them. Wave after wave of attack was repelled by an overworked United defence and as the minutes ticked by it looked as if United might just be able to hang on to the lead.

However City had other ideas and mounted one final desperate attack, and with the last kick of normal time right-winger Nugent scrambled in a last-ditch, but thoroughly deserved, equaliser to force the game into extra time.

Despite conceding a late equaliser, United fans were still confident that the team would prove too strong for Oxford and so they settled down again expecting to see further goals for the home side. They soon got one – but at the wrong end of the pitch - Oxford had carried on where they left off, and left-winger Wheeler put them in front for the first time after only five minutes of the extra period.

This strike seemed to spur United on and they come close on several occasions. With only one minute of the half remaining, George Tranter came up front for yet another corner and magnificently nodded United level yet again.

The second period was full of action and there were goalmouth incidents galore at both ends, with no sign of the brave amateurs tiring, the tie was very evenly balanced. With the minutes ticking by a replay was looking more and more likely. United launched one last desperate and frenzied attack, the ball was crossed from the right, Charlie Thompson flicked a beautiful header over the keeper and the crowd began to celebrate it had “goal” written all over it but incredibly, just as the ball was about to flash under the crossbar and into the net, a defender flew across the face of the goal and produced a magnificent save to fingertip the ball over the bar. The referee awarded United a penalty.

Tension mounted as Thompson placed the ball on the spot for what must surely have been the last kick of the game. An eerie silence fell over the 7,500 crowd packed into Edgar Street. Would Charlie’s nerve hold, or would the tension prove too much for him? He ran up and let rip with a rasping drive. The keeper dived. Before he hit the deck the ball was smashed into the back of the net. Edgar Street erupted. What a game it was, and what a fantastic finish!

After the game Oxford sportingly congratulated their opponents and left the field to a standing ovation. They would long be remembered by the many new friends they had made in Hereford that day.

As told to me by friend Ron Parrott

John Cutler

“Tupsley Whites”

 

Massive one - yet again

Two cup finals a week at the moment, and here’s another.

Hereford FC host Oxford City on Tuesday evening, knowing that a win would give the club and supporters genuine optimism again about the chances of survival, rather than just hope.

The Bulls very badly need to go on another two-game winning run, and then ideally another one after that, because if they win their four remaining games, all at home, none particularly nasty looking, they can’t be relegated.

In last Saturday’s relegation battle, the comeback draw duplicated exactly what happened at Edgar Street earlier in the season between Hereford and Bedford. If this Tuesday’s relegation battle duplicates what happened when Oxford hosted Hereford earlier in the season, it won’t be much fun.

The Bulls dominated the early stages of that game, yet came away losing 3-0. A red card for Matt Preston in the first half was the turning point.

A Bulls win here would reduce the gap to Oxford to two points, with Hereford having a game in hand. The Hoops follow this with a home game against a flying Chester, and then travel to Darlington on the final day of the season for a game the Quakers may have to win to secure a play-off place. That looks significantly tougher on paper than what Hereford have left, although of course on grass is where it matters, or, increasingly, plastic.

A rejuvenated Aaron Skinner made a difference when coming on at the weekend as a substitute. I’ve got an odd and persistent feeling that he’ll score a very important goal at some point before the end of the season. Aaron Downes may opt to start with him here. He’ll also need to decide whether to go with Keziah Martin or Harry Tustin, and also whether Andy Williams should start ahead of either George Munday or Mikey Lane, with both youngsters having been used extensively recently. They and the Cheltenham loanees will have grown immeasurably over the course of their time at Edgar Street, as players and men, but going from having played very little men’s football to two or even three games a week is inevitably going to lead to at least a minor bit of rotation being needed.

Matt Preston missed out entirely on Saturday, so it seems likely that Howkins and Quansah will start as the central defenders, denying Preston the chance to make amends for his early bath in the game between these two earlier in the season, although I can’t imagine he did actually have a bath after getting sent off. That would have been odd.

The Hoops took a while to adapt to the rigours of the National League North last season as newly relegated arrivals, both on the pitch and off it given the travel involved as a southern club in a northern league. However, they rallied, adapted and ultimately comfortably avoided back-to-back relegations. Nevertheless they finished a distant 23 points behind tenth-placed Hereford. 

They haven’t kicked on from there though, and up until recently looked nailed on to be relegated. However they’ve rallied again, and are seven games unbeaten (I probably shouldn't mention seven-game runs of any sort here given what's still fresh and painful in the memory). That run must surely come to an end very soon - as soon as Tuesday with a bit of luck.

Their upturn has coincided with the arrival on loan of ex-Kidderminster wide man Ashley Hemmings. Now a Dagenham player, the 35-year-old actually went back to Harriers on loan earlier in the season but it didn’t work out. He’s now at Oxford and they’ve lost just once in his eight games for the club.

Along with Hemmings, Zac McEachran offers vast experience and has played over 350 times for the club. The Bulls will have to be very smart in dealing with these old stagers, who won’t be fazed by the occasion one bit.

Ex-Bull DJ Campton-Sturridge is having a good season in a struggling side, with ten goals. However, he was missing from the side that drew 1-1 at Alfreton on Saturday with a sore ankle, and is a doubt again here.

It’s encouraging that they failed to beat the Derbyshire side given that Alfreton played with ten men for most of the game. It’s also encouraging that they’ve won just three of 21 away games this season.

Hereford have spent much of the season playing two very different games of 45 minutes within whole 90-minute matches, but they’ll know that they can’t afford a single no-show 45 minutes, along the lines of that first half at Bedford, in the eight blocks of 45 minutes that remain available to them this season. A repeat of the South Shields performance and result would do nicely. 5-0 for goal difference and blood pressure purposes would be even better.

There should be another good crowd for this, and hopefully a noisy, encouraging atmosphere rather than a tense one.

Can’t lose this, can’t really draw it either…by my reckoning that only leaves one option.

COYW

Four Games To Go For Hereford

Four games in eleven days, that is what is in front of Hereford before the season ends.

And to avoid relegation it looks as if they may need to win at least three of them.

Luckily all four fixtures are at Edgar Street starting tomorrow evening with the visit of Oxford who are 19th in the table.

Tuesday, April 14: Oxford City (h) - 7.45pm 

Saturday, April 18: Radcliffe (h) – 3pm

Tuesday, April 21: Marine (h) - 7.45pm

Saturday, April 25: Peterborough Sports (h) – 12.30pm

This is how the bottom of the table looks this morning:

16	Chorley	44	14	11	19	53
17	Bedford Town	44	13	12	19	51
18	Curzon Ashton	44	13	12	19	51
19	Oxford City	43	13	11	19	50
20	Kings Lynn Town	44	12	14	18	50
21	Hereford	42	12	9	21	45
22	Alfreton T	43	11	12	20	45
23	Peterborough Sports	44	10	8	26	38
24	Leamington	44	7	8	29	29

Of the bottom clubs other than Hereford and Oxford City only Alfreton have a game tomorrow. They play Buxton (9th) at home. 

 

News Round Up

Morecambe FC are using a legal loophole to delay publication of their annual accounts for a further three months.

Lee Bingham who revealed earlier that he is leaving Bedford at the end of the season has said that he hasn't got another job lined up. He also heaped special praise on Jon Taylor, Mr Bedford, who managed Hereford when Agombar was the owner.

Whilst Oxford City drew 1-1 at Alfreton yesterday, it's noted that Alfreton went down to ten men after just 22 minutes. Hereford play Oxford on Tuesday evening.

Kings Lynn manager Paul Caddis accused his players of 'lacking the guts for a relegation battle after they lost 4-1 at Kidderminster yesterday. ' Really disappointed with the result, disappointed with the performance but more so the lack of desire and character to keep the ball out the net,' he said.

Bedford manager to leave at the end of the season

Bedford Town manager Lee Bircham has handed in his resignation.

He will be in charge of the Eagles' final two games of the season but will then step down.

Bircham took over in May 2023 and took Bedford to the Southern Premier League Central.

There, he won the title last season, gaining promotion to National League North.

Bedford - who drew 2-2 with Hereford on Saturday - are still in the relegation mix, but realistically only need one more win to stay up. 

In a statement, Bedford Town said: "The board of Bedford Town would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Lee for guiding the club through an extraordinary period of progression over the last three years. It was a goal to return to step three when Lee took over, but the progression on the field has been gigantic under his stewardship.

"The club also fully value the contribution Lee has given off the field, developing a special relationship with the supporters, volunteers, officials and partners of the club. It will be of disappointment to many that Lee is departing from the post of Manager at the Eyrie. 

"However, the board accept Lee’s reasons for his resignation and remain motivated on achieving the goals set at the start of the season, together."

538 Hereford Supporters At Bedford

Great turnout of Hereford supporters at Bedford yesterday, 538 out of a total attendance of 1609. 

Contrast that with just 39 Kings Lynn supporters in a gate of 2598 at Kidderminster. 

Second Half Pictures From Bedford

A selection of pictures from the second half at Bedford yesterday afternoon.

 

Hereford Women Draw At Bromsgrove

Hereford Woman have drawn their game at Bromsgrove this afternoon.

Bromsgrove Sporting Ladies 2 Hereford Women 2 

Hereford Women played well throughout the game and battled hard. 

 

They led 2-0 at half-time through goals from Maisie Evans and Sheree Smith (pen). 

 

The second half started with a brief spell of heavy rain, and Bromsgrove were a little fortunate to score twice playing down the slope. 

 

Final score was 2-2, a point was the very least Hereford Women deserved.

 

Sheree Smith was Hereford's Player of the Match. 

 

Thanks to Hereford supporter Rob Hipwell for the summary. 

 

Next for Hereford in the League is a 'home' game against Worcester in two weeks time. 

 

Bircham To Leave Bedford At End Of Season

Bedford manager Lee Bircham is to leave his post at the end of the season.

Bedford Town Football Club can confirm manager Lee Bircham has submitted his resignation. Lee will remain in his role until the end of the season, but will not be in charge for the 2026/27 campaign.

 
Lee joined the Eagles in May 2023 and led the club to an immediate return to step three, via the Southern League Division One Central playoffs in May 2024. With the aim of survival at step three, Bircham then surprised the non league community by winning last season’s PitchingIn Southern League Premier Division Central. The title winning season saw the Eagles return to step two for the first time in 19 years.

The club’s first season in the Enterprise National League North has led to town remaining outside the relegation zone for the large majority of the season. With survival at step two the sole aim of the campaign, Lee and the club remain focused on achieving this in the last two games of the season, starting with our trip to South Shields on Saturday. 

The board of Bedford Town would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Lee for guiding the club through an extraordinary period of progression over the last three years. It was a goal to return to step three when Lee took over, but the progression on the field has been gigantic under his stewardship.

The club also fully value the contribution Lee has given off the field, developing a special relationship with the supporters, volunteers, officials and partners of the club. It will be of disappointment to many that Lee is departing from the post of Manager at the Eyrie. However, the board accept Lee’s reasons for his resignation and remain motivated on achieving the goals set at the start of the season, together. 

Attention now turns to our final two Enterprise National League North fixtures. Lee’s final game in charge of the Eagles comes against Scarborough on Saturday 25th April, kicking off at the earlier time of 12:30pm at the Eyrie.

 
Lee departs at the start of May with our sincere thanks, appreciation and best wishes for the next role in football and personally.