Following Tuesday’s deeply disappointing home loss to Bradford Park Avenue, Hereford FC make the long trip to Durham on Saturday to face Spennymoor Town, or Spendymore Town if one wanted to jealously poke fun at the club’s deep-pocketed approach to its ascent of the football pyramid. However, any envy would be misplaced, as in this case the growth of the club on and off the pitch has been done sensibly and sustainably.
When owner Brad Groves took over Spennymoor a decade ago, Town were on the brink of bankruptcy, with their Brewery Field home making our Blackfriars End look like the height of architectural sophistication. Since then, Groves and manager Jason Ainsley have transformed the club’s fortunes on and off the pitch, admittedly by pumping a lot of Groves’ own money in, rising from the Northern League and developing a thriving academy and off-field income streams. Groves believes the club is now nearing a point of sustainability whereby he can stop the bankrolling.
Last season, this fixture ended 4-0 to the home team on the final day of the truncated season, with ace marksman Glen Taylor grabbing a brace. In fairness that scoreline was a bit misleading, with Hereford enjoying plenty of possession without turning it into goals. Sound familiar?
Taylor’s still there and already has three goals this season, having finished as one of the division’s top strikers over the last two seasons, scoring 58 goals in that time. If he’s afforded any room for manoeuvre by the Bulls defence on Saturday, the chances are he’ll add to that tally.
The Moors have a 100% record to protect at home this season as they enjoy their best start for three years, beating Farsley and Chester at the Brewery Field already, hardly surprising as they really are a tough proposition on their own patch. Last season they won 12 of their 18 home games and finished in the play-off positions for the second year in a row, having only missed out the season before that on goal difference. Like Hereford, they had a fixture-free Saturday last weekend, and no midweek game, which has given their injury-hit squad time to recover.
As for the visitors, it seems unlikely that the starting XI will remain the same for this one, given Tuesday’s result. Player/coach Jan Klukowski came on at half time in midweek, and could offer some experience and guile in midfield from the start here if fit, as could Giles Coke, whose CV suggests good things to come. James McQuilkin’s dead-ball expertise would add a welcome source of ammunition for Lenell John-Lewis.
Looking ahead, the Bulls’ November fixtures look to be an interesting mixture of should-wins and matches which will go a long way to showing just how much progress the Gowling-Burr partnership has made since taking charge in spring. Blyth, Kettering and Chorley have all struggled so far, and in the case of the first two have found this level a struggle over two seasons now. On paper, those matches look like low-hanging fruit in terms of picking up a few points. Having said that, Bradford very much fell into that category too. Contrastingly, Chester, Darlington and big-spending fancy-dans Gloucester City (six words that look all wrong when seen next to each other) offer sterner tests.
Talking of which, this one very definitely falls into that category, looking like a much tougher assignment than Tuesday’s defeat, so there needs to be a reaction and an improvement to quell any ‘Here we go again’ feelings among supporters starting to fear a hat-trick of miserable seasons. The hosts will be expecting to win, so an attacking approach from them could present opportunities at the other end for a speedily counter-attacking Hereford team to exploit, in contrast to the plodding inability to break down Bradford’s defensive formation in the second half on Tuesday.
Thinking positively, if you’d normally have made the trip up there for this one, defeat would at least mean you can drown your sorrows in Chateau Lafite rather than Strongbow given what you’ll have saved in petrol money. However, it won’t come to that – somehow the Bulls will find a way to win this one.
COYW