Tough Month for Bulls

There's a tough month ahead for Hereford United and its care-taker manager Jamie Pitman. Two 'local' derbies and two games against Lincoln City are coming up.

However Pitman and his squad will go into the first of these games, home against Cheltenham next Saturday, boosted by last Saturday's 5-1 FA Cup win which was also Pitman's first home win since taking over from Simon Davey just five weeks ago.

For their part the Gloucestershire Robins have made some progress under Mark Yates who joined them as manager from Kidderminster. They, too, are still in the FA Cup but have a difficult tie at Southampton to get through if they are to progress to the third round. In the league they are currently in ninth place with a game in hand over most of their rivals.

However their away form is worse than that of Hereford United. So a real chance for Pitman to take three points from this game. No doubt former Robin Michael Townsend, now captaining the Bulls, would be especially happy with a win over his former team.

The following Saturday the Bulls travel to Lincoln City who are currently 23rd in the table. They have won just two of their eight home games and if the Bulls are to continue their climb up the table this is a game they must win.

The most difficult of this months remaining games will probably be at the new Gay Meadow the following Tuesday evening. Shrewsbury have prospered under Graham Turner and are fourth in the table. What's more they are unbeaten at home. However Shrewsbury have only won three of their last ten games.

Every good run comes to an end sometime and assuming the Bulls under Pitman are still unbeaten in the League, this might be the game that record goes. But you never know.

Then the FA Cup match against Lincoln City. Suffice it to say this is one the Bulls really need to win. Firstly there is the prize money but secondly, and probably more importantly, the chance of a tie against a top Premiership side.

The biggest problem Pitman faces is that he will be several players short for some of these games. Janos Kovacs and Dan Connor are likely to miss all of the games, Guillem Bauza might be fit in time for the trip to Lincoln but James McQuilken, who pulled a hamstring on Saturday may struggle until, perhaps, the following week which is the Cup game.

On top of that Stuart Fleetwood is suspended for the Cheltenham match and there are several other players on three or four yellow cards including Mathieu Manset (4).

Remaining Fixtures for November:

Saturday November 13th: Cheltenham Town at home 3pm
Saturday November 20th: Lincoln City away 3pm
Tuesday November 23rd: Shrewsbury Town away 7.45pm
Saturday November 27th: Lincoln City at home 3pm (2nd round FA Cup)

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