Hereford FC entertain neighbours Gloucester City on Tuesday evening, and what a contrast to Saturday’s match at Blyth. From the longest trip of the season to a local derby, and an opposition among the frontrunners as the season takes shape, whereas Spartans look to be heading for another relegation battle.
Whilst the Bulls’ dismantling of the northeasterners on Saturday was impressive and bodes well for the coming glut of games, it seems unlikely that this encounter will be as straightforward.
Sources report that the Tigers are, so far this season, ticking several of the boxes that some would argue need to be ticked to get out of National League North: energetic, good at pressing, partial to a bit of gamesmanship, direct but not very easy on the eye. It’s the sort of approach Kings Lynn took last season, and they were rewarded with promotion, but its one-dimensional nature seems to then get instantly exposed in the division above and results in rapid relegation. If Lynn don’t go down this season I’ll be amazed.
Those same sources suggested the weak link in the Gloucester team to be the young goalkeeper Louie Moulden. Certainly they’ve conceded more goals than anyone other than Telford in the top half of the table, and are yet to keep a clean sheet, so there may be some credence to that. If so, a few diagonal balls into the box may be the order of the day. On Saturday, they certainly did look shaky at the back in conceding four to Bradford Park Avenue in a 4-4 thriller, a result that puts Hereford’s loss to BPA in a marginally better light. However, ex-Cheltenham goalie and Bulls triallist Rhys Lovett took over from Moulden on the day, so the pecking order may have changed, although the leakiness remains.
Unfortunately, at the other end they’ve scored absolutely loads more than anyone else. They top the table with 17 points from their opening seven games, averaging over three goals a game, and are as yet unbeaten. Such a flying start is of little surprise given the players they were bringing in over the summer, particularly up front, such as Akwasi Asante and Matty McClure. Both players found the net on Saturday, and are the two leading scorers in the division. Dutchman Asante scored 27 in 36 games for Chester last season. McClure’s career stalled at Aldershot (wouldn’t everyone’s?) but a return to form at Maidstone last season has continued after signing for Gloucester.
All of this illustrates how tall an order it’s going to be defensively on Tuesday evening, and both signings clearly demonstrate that Gloucester aren’t messing about this season in terms of on-the-pitch investment and a determination to get promoted.
As for the hosts, Ben Pollock’s return to the side on Saturday following a summer knee operation looked to add more solidity to the team, and it was good to see the goals-from-open-play hoodoo lifted, with the usual suspects, double-barrelled shooters Tom Owen-Evans and Lenell John-Lewis, finding the net. Andrai Jones and Jake Wright have now left the club, but Toby Raison is available as cover at the back.
Following Saturday’s win and Gloucester’s good start, this would have been a match that supporters would have looked forward to attending, attracting a decent gate and generating a good atmosphere under the lights to boot. I suppose at least by not being allowed in there’s no risk of being blinded by the scoreboard, which is, I have on good authority, providing the entire population of Hereford with solar power during its break from stadium duties. Optical advantages aside, what a shame that the game has to be played behind closed doors. Who knows though, on 23 March a thousand heavily vaccinated Bulls fans (ie literally rather than as a euphemism for too much Stowford) could descend on Gloucester for the return match, a crunch top-of-the-table Two-of-the-Three-Choirs-Derby day out.
This one doesn’t look like a 0-0. Can we score more than them? On all available evidence, probably not, but an early Hereford goal on the back of that win on Saturday would bring momentum and belief into play, and all bets are then off.
COYW