Hereford FC’s season is
scheduled to restart on Saturday at Edgar Street with Guiseley the visitors,
kick off 3pm, following a brief winterval brought on by earlier incompetence in
the FA Trophy. Whilst many supporters would no doubt have seen the break as giving
some blessed relief from the pain of witnessing how the season has played out to
date, there is, regrettably, a requirement for football clubs to play football
matches, so Guiseley at home it is. That said, my far-flung corner of the
county is currently utterly sodden, so whether the game goes ahead or not
remains to be seen, and if it’s off we’re looking at a glorious three-week
unbeaten run before the Bulls embark on dealing with a pair of Kiddies over
Christmas, which Santa would manage in a heartbeat, so it shouldn’t be too
taxing for eleven much younger men.
If the match does get the green
light, at least it’s at home. Some signs of life have been glimpsed over the
last two home matches, notably against York, and give some hope that a
long-yearned for win is not completely out of the question. However, Guiseley
are your archetypal bog-standard National League North side, which on the face
of it should be a plus, but the Bulls have found ‘bog-standard’ a tough nut to
crack in a season-and-a-half in the NLN so far. In fairness, they’ve also found
the promotion and relegation contenders tough nuts to crack, so one can only
hope that Russell Slade has asked old Santa for a new pair of nutcrackers to
employ in the new year.
Hereford’s record over the course
of their time in the second tier of the non-league game so far reads as
follows: W 17 D 22 L 23. Those statistics were certainly not in the script
following promotion from the Southern League. However, on the basis that it
can’t get any worse (and a glance at the current form table suggests that this
theory has some legs), the Christmas period represents as good a time as any to
belatedly find a winning formula and pick up lots of juicy points in a
fortnight.
Guiseley’s season has bumbled
along in suitably bog-standard fashion. They’re tenth, just a point above
Hereford, and have won just one of their last five league games. They started the
season perkily enough (including the obligatory 3-0 victory at home to the
Bulls), but lost at home to Kidderminster last time out. It must be really
tricky to find a way to lose at home to Kidderminster this season, so there’s a
suggestion of frailty there for the free-scoring Hereford attack to exploit.
Aaron Martin scored all three
in that early-season canter through the Bulls’ perennially porous defence, and
will have to be watched carefully, rather than allowed all the time he wants to
pick his spot, as has become traditional.
Hereford are currently officially
the worst team in the league, oh yes, with a pitiful three points from eight matches,
and points, performances and some new faces are desperately needed to arrest a
fall in attendances and a tumble down into the lower reaches of the table.
Several players have recently been sent out on loan, giving a strong indication
that Slade is well aware that the squad is both bloated and sub-standard (OK he
didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to notice that, admittedly).
If you're tempted by the allure of Christmas shopping instead of this glamour tie, don't forget that by going to Edgar Street at the moment you get a free suntan courtesy of the electronic scoreboard, so rather than traipse round the shops get to the game and take a healthy glow away with you to impress the family at Christmas. You can deal with the unsightly blistering in January.
Ugh. I may be nuts and I may be
crackers, but I reckon some gritty defending and the sort of motivation throughout
the team that was shown in the York game should give the hosts every chance in
this one. However, if the players fail yet again to turn up, why should we?
COYW