It’s back to FA Cup duty on Tuesday evening for Hereford FC as they visit Stafford Rangers for a third qualifying round tie. It was at this stage last season that the Bulls bowed out against mighty Tamworth, thus extinguishing any possibility of getting revenge over Morpeth at Wembley in an admittedly unlikely final.
Despite ultimately losing that tie after literally hundreds of minutes of wretched football, it was an eminently winnable one, and this looks the same. Stafford’s presumably handier for most Bulls players to get to than Hereford is, and the club plies its trade one level below Hereford in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. This looks, therefore, like a juicy opportunity to advance to within sniffing distance of the actual first round, where the prospect of treats as glitzy as Accrington away await.
Links between Stafford and Hereford FC/United exist in near-namesakes Steves Burr and Bull, and, given the lack of options up front for the Bulls currently, surely it’s worth offering Bully non-contract terms even at his advanced age for a second spell spearheading the Hereford attack. Burr started his playing career at the club, and returned as manager in May 2018, resigning just six months later from what turned out to be his last managerial job before joining Hereford. Following a glittering career starring for Wolves under Graham Turner, with a brief swansong for Hereford United in 2000, Bull managed Rangers for just ten months in 2008 in a season that ended with relegation from the Conference, a level the club hasn’t been back to since.
Stafford are four games into their league season and are making heavy weather of it. They’ve lost both of their home games and have just a point to their name, sitting second bottom in the table. Spies have reported that they looked fairly uncompromising in a pre-season friendly, so Kyle Finn might have to take the field head-to-toe in Teflon as he may get the same treatment that was meted out to him at Gosport.
The Bulls followed an impressive win in the last round against Gosport with a creditable draw at Southport last Tuesday as the league season got underway. Attritional it may have been, but there’s little doubt that it was just the sort of match that would have been lost over the last two seasons, with a shaky defence capitulating under the sort of pressure the hosts applied in the second half. However, the new-look back line held firm, and given that the players are still new to one another things can only get even better defensively as an understanding develops.
If Josh Gowling can’t get the Steve Bull signing over the line, things are still looking a bit ropey further up the field. It’s not known whether Lenny John-Lewis is fit again after limping off in the last round, and it sounds as if Demetri Brown could be out for some while yet. If The Shop is still unavailable, Gowling will presumably give Andrai Jones another start as a lone striker, with Tom Owen-Evans and Kyle Finn either side. However, if this Cup tie is anything like the last one ten players will be signed hours before kick-off and the above analysis will look as dated as Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Having enjoyed a rest over the weekend following Bradford’s decision not to travel to Edgar Street with Covid in their camp, the players should be full of beans for this one. Progress to the next round could see one or two Bullieve tops being ironed around the county and beyond.
COYW