Pending an imminent pitch inspection, it’s back to league action for Hereford
FC this weekend as they travel up to Bridlington to face Scarborough, following
a much-needed break from the National League North last Saturday, which saw
smooth progress made into the next round of the FA Trophy.
This will be the Seadogs fourth season
in the NLN, although it’s a challenging one for them following a sky-high quote
for a plastic pitch replacement at the Flamingo Land Stadium, which has left
them playing home games this season twenty miles down the coast.
Echoes here of Farsley’s implosion last
season, so fingers crossed that they can get it sorted as quickly as possible,
given that Celtic ended up getting dumped in step 5 as a result of their own
plastic pitch issues.
I suggested pre-season that the pitch
situation might make Scarborough outside bets for relegation, but they started
superbly and were in the top three for a while. Not unusually my Mystic Meg
powers weren’t much cop, although in my defence I did also suggest that
Radcliffe could be NLN promotion dark horses, which they are being, and they’ll be tough
opponents in the next round of the Trophy.
Scarborough have now slipped a bit but
still occupy a play-off position. That slippage is largely due to a run of four
straight losses recently against Telford, Marine, South Shields and Worksop.
They stopped that particular rot with a win at Curzon Ashton, and it’s that
sort of result that’s probably a fairer reflection of how challenging they’ll
be as opponents, ie difficult for a Hereford side short on confidence. This
notion is backed up by the fact that they beat Fylde and a flying Merthyr
earlier in the season.
Given that they’re merely tenants at
Bridlington’s Mounting Systems Stadium (how boring is that name compared to the
Flamingo Land Stadium?!), their record there is superb. They’ve won six of
seven games.
They’re typically a good-to-watch
passing team. Luca Colville, Alex Purver and Harry Green have all shown
themselves to be smart and creative midfielders against Hereford before. Dom
Tear always weighs in with goals, but the big success story for them this
season has been ex-Middlesbrough youngster Stephen Walker, who joined in
February from Whitby. He has nine goals in 14 league games.
Last weekend though the Seadogs were
dumped out of the Trophy, losing 1-0 at Leek.
Hereford yet again conceded earlyish
against Sudbury last weekend, but stormed back for a comfortable win. It may be
of lower importance as a competition, but could that Trophy win be a
springboard to bounce on to better things in the league? It’s an inconvenient
truth that as we approach late November Hereford have failed to beat any of the
sides in the top half of the division, other than Buxton who are 11th, so far
this season. If they can buck that trend here something special could finally
start to happen.
Matt Preston will be back for this one
having sat out the Trophy game serving a one-match ban.
Sam Osborne, with three goals last
Saturday, continues to be one of the season’s redeeming features, and could
well go on to be the side’s top scorer this season. It would be nice to think
that some sort of deal can be struck with Alfreton to make his move south a
more concrete one, for the rest of this season and ideally the next.
Big performances from recent hat-trick
heroes Osborne and Omari Sterling James will be key here to giving the hosts
something to worry about.
Harley Hamilton is back in contention
here having been cup-tied last weekend, and has shown enough already so far
since his arrival from Alvechurch to suggest that he could contribute to a
turnaround in the Bulls’ fortunes.
The biggest squad news of the week
though was Jaiden White’s return on loan from Sutton. The player seemed to
improve markedly during his last spell at Edgar Street, and also connected
really well with younger supporters. He also seemed genuinely sorry to go,
although no-one could blame him for stepping up a level. Montel Gibson’s return
earlier in the season was of course the dampest of squibs, but Jaiden could
make a real difference between now and January, when the loan deal expires.
After all, you can’t always rely on your midfielders getting hat-tricks each
week.
Well done also to Paul Caddis for
getting the deal done, a deal no doubt made easier by the part the manager
played in improving the player and forming a good working relationship with him
last season.
It would have been depressingly
difficult to make a case for Hereford getting anything out of this prior to the
FA Trophy game, but five goals away from home last week should have given the
squad a confidence boost regardless of the quality of the opposition, and is something
to build on as they look to climb away from the relegation places.
A clean sheet and solidly organised
defensive display would be a nice early Christmas present too.
COYW
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