Hereford FC face their first big
old road trip of the season on Saturday, unless of course the Yeomans Learjet
is chartered – just think of that colour scheme in airborne form elegantly and
effortlessly climbing into the sky out of Shobdon – wow, beautiful.
Unusually it’s across rather
than up this time around, to the outskirts of Holland. King's Lynn Town are the
hosts, and this meeting between the two clubs (kick off 3pm) will remind
supporters of how uncomfortable the Linnets made much of HFC’s Southern League
Premier championship season in 2017/18. The Norfolk outfit, along with Slough
and Kettering, pushed the Bulls hard throughout the winter that year before top
spot and promotion were secured as Beadle’s team eased clear in the spring.
Lynn deservedly went one better
themselves the following season, promoted along with Kettering, with both now
joining the Bulls in National League North.
Their time with the big boys this
season started somewhat inauspiciously, with a 3-0 defeat at unfancied Guiseley
(unfancied but now top of the table after thrashing a strangely slow-starting Bradford PA, who have already sacked their manager and appointed a new one), but turned things around in midweek with a
2-1 win against those aforementioned fellow newcomers Kettering.
Michael Gash and Adam Marriott
are potent threats up top for the Linnets, with the former making a habit of
scoring against the Bulls in the past, and generally being a real pest.
The Bulls, if one’s glass is
half full, professionally put a suicidal Gloucester to the sword on Tuesday
without needing to break sweat. The more pessimistic might suggest that there
was little in the game to suggest that the team have progressed markedly since
last season.
As ever, the truth probably
lies somewhere in between, and it was really encouraging, in a counterintuitive
kind of way, to hear Marc Richards say afterwards that it was nowhere near the
required level, rather than going down the ‘win’s a win’ route. OK he did that
a bit too, but not exclusively, which would have been hard to stomach.
Up front, the new strikers have
yet to find the net between them, although the penalty that put Tuesday’s game to
bed was down to Reece Styche’s, er, professionalism. As was predicted
pre-season (possibly by himself, can’t remember) he will divide opinion among
fans. Two games in and he’s dividing opinion among fans. You’ll either love him
or hate him. I quite like him. I’d like him even more if the caricature was
completed by a twirly evil villain’s moustache like in the silent movies. And a
cape. Or horns on his head. Sharpened horns. Rowan Liburd is proving to be one of
those strikers who ghosts through games seemingly doing very little, such that
at the end of the season you wonder how on earth he quietly contributed 15-20
goals to the cause. He just needs to work on the second bit. Quite a lot.
As with last season, 4-4-2
doesn’t look too far off selecting itself on the evidence provided so far.
Jordan Cullinane Liburd in a three never looks as happy as in a flat back four,
out-and-out right-back Jared Hodgkiss would be better suited perhaps playing as
an out-and-out right back, and Martin Riley’s demotion to the bench to allow as
many of the sparky midfielders as possible to start would presumably be well
received. Purds could then be drafted in down a firefighter’s pole at left
back as temporary cover for Danny Greenslade, where he’d ‘do a job’.
There are grounds where Marc
Richards’ ‘tough place to come and get a result’ mantra works, and grounds
where it doesn’t. Suggesting that about FC United of Manchester last season was
a bit nutty when they’d lost virtually all their home games. Suggesting it
about The Walks, King's Lynn is entirely justified. It’s going to be
super-tough, and I worry about the current defensive formation/personnel in
fending off the twin threat of Gash and Marriott, but win this one and the
Telford match back home on Tuesday could see a healthy attendance, a febrile
atmosphere, and a burgeoning belief. A defeat might answer some of the
questions thrown up by the first two games.
Here’s hoping for the former.
COYW