Hereford FC hit the road tonight for
a National League North fixture against Chester FC. Having had a hugely
disruptive start to their season, Chester have recently steadied the ship, with
eleven points from their last five games, and a creditable 0-0 draw at leaders
Chorley on Saturday. There’s no doubt that they’re strong all over the pitch,
with a good chance of justifying pre-season hype and spending just one season
in this division.
However, just weeks ago, following
relegation last season, they somehow contrived to lose 8-0 at Blyth, before wind
and rain damage to their Swansway Stadium meant that they couldn’t play a home
game for several weeks, hence the need for this fixture to switch from a
potentially lucrative bank holiday Monday match to a less enticing Tuesday
evening one. That enticement may be further lessened for Bulls fans following the
no-shots-on-target capitulation to Spennymoor on Saturday.
In contrast to Chester, a look at
the Bulls’ recent form makes for ugly reading: a solitary point from the last
six league games. If you take the opening 3-0 win against Blyth and the 4-3 Cup
win out of the equation, Hereford have mustered just five goals in eleven
games. After the feast of the last three seasons, this is unarguably the
famine.
As Ryan Green admitted, there
really were no positives to be taken from Saturday’s performance, and perhaps
his own absence through injury didn’t help matters. That said, if the squad is
that reliant on one or two players in order to stand a chance of getting
something from games, reinforcements must surely be brought in as soon as
possible.
New head of football Tim Harris
has hinted that a squad of 23 may be too big, and also that he’d prefer to sign
players rather than loan them. If new faces are to come in as Hereford players
rather than loanees, there would obviously be no contribution to their wages
from a parent club, as there would if they were loanees, so the squad would presumably
have to be trimmed considerably to free up some budget to sign a couple of
relatively well-established players.
Since GT started really milking
the loan system and making Shrewsbury grumpy in the process, HUFC and then HFC
under Pete Beadle have really benefited from using loan players, and I can’t
recall any who considered themselves ‘bigger than the club’, which is
reportedly Harris’s concern. Prudently recruiting players, often keen and eager
youngsters, with the right attitude seems to be key. I’d therefore be wary of dismissing
the loan market as a recruitment option.
Finding a couple of players who
could make an immediate impact is far easier said than done of course unless
you throw money at it, but some sort of statement of intent from the new
management team is what’s needed to give fans a renewed sense of optimism.
Let’s hope the current squad can
prove that they have actually got what it takes and get something from tonight’s
match. A winning goal from Harry White against his old club would do him and us
the world of good!
COYW