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| The Keeper Is Beaten And Mclean's Shot Is Goalward Bound |
Harwood Bull watched Hereford win at Guiseley this afternoon.
This was my second trip to Guiseley. The previous occasion was on a freezing cold winter night, today was far more pleasant - a beautiful autumn day for the drive from home up through Skipton and Ilkley. We arrived at the ground with enough time to buy one of the exceptional steak pies (provided by Weatherheads of Pately Bridge) and a cup of tea. What could possibly spoil the day after that?
The first big surprise was the news that Zeli Ismail was back in the squad. Presumably he had been unable to find a club to match his over inflated salary expectations and so returned to us.
The starting line up was the same as for last week’s home win over Chorley, and there was optimism in the air. I was looking forward to seeing the Chief in action. He started at the heart of the defence – the old campaigner to provide the cool head and organisation alongside Pollock’s tireless effort and commitment.
Guiseley had the better of the early passages of play, and had a couple of chances, the best coming when Tuton was just unable to force the ball home at the back post as it flashed across the goal. They looked dangerous down both flanks, particularly on the Hereford right, where Hodgkiss was caught out a couple of times by a diagonal ball over his head. The Bulls’ defence had the low, very bright sun in their eyes for the first 30 minutes, fortunately the home side failed to exploit this, and didn’t pump a lot of high balls into the area.
Pearce seemed to be living up to his nickname, was constantly organising and talking, even calming down what looked like a bit of friction between Hodgkiss and Pollock. He also stepped in with a few calm interceptions and clearances.
There was a long interruption to play after fifteen minutes following a clash of heads between Miles Storey and Jake Hull. Hull was able to carry on with some major bandaging, and was on the field as the final whistle blew. Storey came off far worse and it was a few minutes before he was able to get to his feet and walk off groggily with a large icepack held to the rapidly developing lump on his head.
It took a while for the game to really get going again, but on 41 minutes Ismail hit a good volley that was deflected out for a corner. Hereford were unable to get the ball in the net in the scramble that followed. With time running out in the first half Haines drilled the ball out to MacLean on the left who did well to control it and then used his pace to outflank the Guisely defence. His low cross into the box took a couple of deflections before reaching Lloyd on the edge of the penalty area who scored with a low shot for a 1-0 lead.
I was standing near a small group of very well lubricated home supporters whose chanting grew progressively more coarse and offensive as the game grew on, but their response to Hereford going one up was quite witty “Don’t think you’re special, we lose every week”.
Hereford came off for the break having scored with the only shot they had on target, Guiseley probably felt hard done by, but they had failed to make the most of their superior possession. Does that sound familiar?
Half time Guiseley 0 Hereford FC 1
There wasn’t a great deal of constructive play in the second half, and few clear chances. Then Smith, who had chased and battled for everything in the air without success got a good flick on to McLean who raced through on goal, only to lift his shot high over the bar as the home keeper came out to narrow the angle.
He redeemed himself shortly afterwards though, again showing his speed to outpace the Guiseley defence before scoring with a low shot across the keeper. Cue jubilant scenes from the Bulls team.
Guiseley worked hard but didn’t threaten. But then in the 80th minute a home corner was adjudged to have hit a Hereford hand and the ref gave a penalty. After the usual pointless arguing, Spencer took what looked like one of the worst penalties I’ve seen, wide and very high. There seemed to be some confusion afterwards what had happened but one version was that the ball had been struck by Spencer’s standing foot before he kicked it, meaning that the ref awarded a free kick for the double strike on the ball.
Had that gone in the Bulls would have been in for a tough time in the last ten minutes, but they saw the game out fairly comfortably in the end.
Good news for the Bulls is that Vincent was fit enough to come on as sub for Haines, although his contribution was limited. Pearce certainly looked as if he will bring the hoped for experience and leadership skills to the back four, and McLean’s pace should trouble a lot of defences if he plays as he did today. Owen-Evans seemed to be off his game from the attacking standpoint but put in a shift in midfield, putting a foot in here and there to break up attacks.
Bad news was the head injury to Storey. Get well soon.
I never bought into the “false position” argument. While it’s undoubtedly true that it’s a very fine line between success and failure sometimes, if you’re consistently on the wrong side of the line then something needs sorting out. Maybe we’re getting there. Let’s make it three in a row on Tuesday night.
Full time Guiseley 0 Hereford FC 2
Hereford lineup:
Wright, Hodgkiss, Haines (Vincent), Pearce, MacLean, Lloyd, Owen-Evans, Storey (Ismail(Andoh)), Lloyd, Pollock, Smith, Fini
Subs not used: Njie, Sodiende