Hereford FC hit the road again on Saturday, bound for Guiseley, West Yorkshire for the second match of their National League North season, and it looks like a tricky one. The players will have to put the disappointment of defeat in the Cup against lower-graded Stafford in midweek behind them, as they look to build on the point earned at Southport in their opening league game with a win this weekend. Four points from two games would give fans hope that ‘concentrating on the league’ might mean an enjoyable flirt with the play-offs this season, rather than another grim exercise in narrowly avoiding relegation.
Josh Gowling expressed his disappointment in Tuesday’s performance when speaking afterwards to the media, and presumably did the same with the volume turned up a bit when addressing the players, so they’ll know that they need to step up in this one. With several players missing, including old heads and influencers, a shuffling of the pack to bring about that step up in performance levels doesn’t look particularly possible, so it’ll be largely down to Tuesday’s squad to make amends. Brandon Hall may be optimistic of a start though if he’s back in favour, as Paul White didn’t enjoy the best of games.
To be fair to the players it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t have anyone to pass to who can stick the ball in the net against Stafford in the absence from the squad of anyone self-identifying as a striker, but equally one can sympathise with Gowling’s difficulty in getting someone in. Clubs won’t want their delicate young starlets going off on loan to some other bubble when Covid rates are high, and properly actually signing strikers who are worth signing during the season is harder than finding a route for the Hereford bypass. The fact remains, though, that it was something of a punt to go into the season with just two strikers, both of whom have a few injury skeletons in their closets. However, with Kelsey Mooney’s return to the club on loan from Scunthorpe there will be more of a threat up front on Saturday at least, and with Tom Owen Evans starting the season in good form the Guiseley back line should have something to think about. It's just a bit of a concern that they won't feel particularly threatened physically by a front three of Mooney, TOE and Kyle Finn, who will have to rely on their pace and trickery.
Striker Lennel John-Lewis, defender Jarrod Hodgkiss and Yan Klukowski are all out for this one. Andrai Jones and Kennedy Digie make a quick return to Nethermoor Park following their summer transfer from Guiseley to Hereford, so they’ll presumably be ‘up for it’.
As for the hosts, having struggled in 2018/19, finishing 19th, Guiseley were just four points short of the play-offs last season when everything ground to a pandemic-induced halt. It has to be said that it looks like they’ve carried that form into this season so far, with two FA Cup wins and a comfortable 4-0 win against Blyth in the league, suggesting that they’re not missing messrs Jones and Digie too much. That victory over Spartans will see the Lions going into this one in confident mood, particularly as they could have reportedly scored several more but for a stand-out performance from the visiting keeper.
The NLN matches between the clubs so far have generally, not to put too fine a point on it, been really awful. There’s been a win for each and a couple of draws, with a certain J Gowling scoring the winner for Hereford at Edgar Street in 2019. Let’s hope that this one bucks the trend, that the Cup exit was a blip, and that the team can give fans hope that they have what it takes to compete with the likes of York, Boston, Fylde and, bizarrely, Gloucester at the right end of the table this season, if indeed there is a season.
COYW