Preview: Hereford vs Alfreton Town

Following last Saturday’s win (yes, you read that correctly) against FC United of Manchester in the FA Trophy, Hereford FC return to league duties tomorrow, hoping to follow up with another victory that would this time result in a precious three points in the club’s fight to get out of trouble at the foot of the National League North table.

Alfreton, tomorrow’s opponents, are a number of places above Hereford in the table, but only a couple of wins separate the two, and the visitors are on a poor run, culminating in a home defeat to lower-graded Farsley Celtic in the Trophy last weekend. Too often lately the Bulls seem to have come up against opponents in good form, but that won't be the case tomorrow.

It could have been hoped, even by the most ardent pessimist, that more than one point would have been earned in a run of three games against FCUM, Southport and Darlington, two of which were at home, but one point was the return from those games, and Hereford have to start beating some of the clubs who could be around them at the pointy end of the season (Alfreton escaped relegation by three points last term), hopefully beginning with tomorrow’s game.

Tom Owen-Evans

Along with the actual result last Saturday, some positives are starting to emerge. Tom Owen-Evans is beginning to look like he’s coming to terms with the demands of National League North, and he's certainly not what the opposition is used to, because seemingly in this division the expectation is for it to be 11 immovable objects against 11 irresistible forces, with all 22 coming from some windswept village high in the Pennines where their footballing apprenticeship was spent kicking rocks into place in dry-stone walls barefoot in winter.

That’s not to diminish their footballing ability. Everyone knows we’ve been comprehensively out-footballed as well as out-muscled on numerous occasions in the last few months. However, if TOE can be adequately protected by others around him, perhaps for instance new signing James Wesolowski when fit, he looks to have the ability to unlock defences, and also has an eye for goal.

In defence, Harvey Smith was at fault for the FCUM goal last weekend, and with Jordan Cullinane-Liburd looking to be coming back into the sort of form that saw him granted the captaincy not long ago, there could be a case for Ryan Green returning to partner him. This would, of course, mean that a captain has been dropped twice this season, and that’s not something you see very often, but wins are hard enough to come by at the moment without chucking at least a goal a game in for the opposition, and a combination at the back needs to be found to shore things up. New signing Joel Dielna also comes into contention, and will hopefully offer some French brawn and savoir faire. If nothing else, it's nice to have a Frenchman at Edgar Street again. OK there have been a few dodgy ones, but one or two club ledges too in the HUFC days. Here's hoping Joel falls into the latter category.

Mike Symons

Up top, Mike Symons’ return has resulted in the ball spending at least some of the match in the opposition’s half rather than pinging straight back into our own, and again it's to be assumed that the Beast will play a significant role in proceedings.

Hopefully the 1500 missing from Edgar Street last Saturday will decide to give it another go, if only because they can see that the players are giving it everything they’ve got to get the club back on an even keel. Even the most abject performances of late, and there are a few to choose from, have often started with the Bulls being quick out of the traps. If that sort of bright start can result in an early goal for once tomorrow it could be two wins from two.

COYW