 |
| Blyth's Alex Mitchell Can't Keep Ryan Mclean's Deflected Out Of The Goal |
Son of Eric watched Hereford defeat Blyth Spartans 2-0 last night at Edgar Street
A dry mild evening made for perfect conditions under the lights. Hereford continued with the Hall Hodgkiss Pearce Pollock Fini defence which specialises in clean sheets. In midfield Haines and Lloyd sat a little deeper with Owen-Evans further forward. Smith and McLean played the wide attacking roles. Jaanai Gordon came in from Stratford Town to make his debut following Storey’s concussion at Guiseley. A crowd of 1645 had about a dozen away superfans making the 600-mile round trip.
Gordon is remarkably like Storey with the same bullish, muscular physique and a sharp turn of pace. He started quickly forcing a clearance from the Blyth defence. Blyth started the better with quality veteran technicians Deverdics and Dale influential in midfield. Seeing Hall off his line Dale fired in an ambitious shot from by the halfway line, and for a moment you wondered but Brandon quickly back pedalled to claim the ball.
Blyth continued to look the more likely with striker McNall having an effort blocked by Pearce. The “Chief” has made a vast difference to Hereford’s defence. For me he is more of a “Doctor” as his first rule seems to be ‘do no harm’. If in any doubt he clears, he does not over complicate and he senses danger. Like any quality defender he seems to attract shots like a magnet. His quick reactions in the opposition box mean he’s likely to score as well. He has a professional shrewdness. When bettered for pace more than once by McNall he put out an arm, not enough to foul but sufficient for the attacker to have to brush against it and provide a marginal gain for the defence. When Hereford were setting up attacking free kicks on the edge of the box, he stood behind the wall walking parallel to keeper Mitchell obscuring his line of sight. It may be only halfway through November but he’s clearly favourite for Player of the Month.
A routine tussle with McNall saw the Blyth player fall to the ground. Hereford played forward and McLean was running at the heart of the defence when the referee blew up. McNall was feigning a head injury. The referee had initially ignored McNall’s collapse but gave into the theatrics of McNall clutching his head and rolling around. Referees should watch the video of Storey at Guiseley to see a player stone cold out of things. Miles was motionless with the only reactions coming from worried players and manager Gowling. With play called sixty yards back McNall got up to tell the referee that in his opinion he had been elbowed on the side of his head. The referee had a clear view of the incident and made it clear to McNall that this had not happened, and football is a contact sport. The referee showed his disdain instructing Blyth to drop the ball to Hereford in the same forward position. McNall went on to moan and groan and later started whining at his own team. It must be frustrating when you are being marked by Pearce.
Blyth were well in the game despite their recent series of defeats. When Hereford broke Owen-Evans received a late tactical foul from Painter who was booked. Owen-Evans remains an attacking threat but again his defensive work and combativeness in midfield are features he has improved notably this season. A long ball over the top found an unmarked Smith in the middle of the pitch 25 yards out, but his touch was clumsy either very poor control or a weak chip and gathered easily by Mitchell.
McLean’s impressive work rate soon paid off. The corner was cleared, and two Blyth defenders seemed to be far better placed to clear it. Ryan nipped in between turned back towards goal and from the right edge of the box fired in a shot. The shot was blocked by a defender coming out and it ballooned up and into the net at the far post. Blyth manager Nelson complained that his team lost to a deflected shot. From a Hereford perspective a sharper brighter attacker nicked a ball they should not have had the opportunity to take, and then if you don’t shoot you don’t score. This was the sort of unnecessary goal Hereford have conceded this season, so it was a pleasant change to score one.
Blyth came back through Deverdics whose shot was well saved low down by Hall. Hereford tried to play the ball out from the back passing across the back four and then Pollock played forward to Haines, but he was in danger of being closed down and only just stretched to poke back to Pollock, the passing continued until an aimless ball bisected Hodgkiss and Smith on the right with neither having any chance of getting to it. The attacking Blyth throw in which was cleared by Pearce.
In his programme notes Chairman Hale wrote about weak fan-player connections saying “Hereford players are coming up with some great ideas to help build the supporter-player relationships. Hopefully, you’ll see some of the ideas in practice soon.”
Captain Hodgkiss clearly wanted to get on with the implementation of these admirable plans. Several fans by the halfway line under the Len Weston had loudly grumbled about the sloppily lost possession. With the ball safely up field Captain Jared turned to the moaners lifting his hands up to encourage them and said, “F****** Hell, we’re winning!” Silence reigned from the chastised chunterers for the rest of the half. Jared resisting the opportunity to follow up with “It’s all gone quiet over there.”
The Meadow End sang intermittently but missed an opportunity to start “Ryan McLean’s on fire, your defence is terrified.” This was a standout performance from the winger, full of confidence repeatedly surging forward and Blyth’s only answer was to get two or three players to challenge him. McNall showed that he could enter the next Olympics for the gymnastic floor exercises with another collapse and roll around in the penalty box, but once conned twice wise, the referee ignored him, and McNall got up unscathed. The goal changed the dynamic of the game and McLean again attacked drawing in defenders before releasing Lloyd who dinked a delightful cross to the far post for the unmarked Smith who headed wide when it seemed easier to score.
There’s still work for the Hereford attack to do. Another rampaging run by McLean saw him get to the edge of the box and stand up a ball to the far post. Ryan’s quick but other players need to keep up with him and anticipate his play. Here nobody had made a run to the far post area where a tap in goal bonus was available.
At half time Fini was substituted with Vincent coming on and Lloyd dropping into left back. Of the many players tried at left back Ryan Lloyd looks best and I think Hereford have not conceded when he’s being playing in that position. With his consistently good work in midfield after a quarter of the season he would be this observer’s player of the season so far.
Hereford came out more dominant and McLean was soon dancing towards the defence. Gordon got down the left and tried a shot from an almost impossible angle which went into the side netting, it seemed a very poor decision with Smith waiting in the box. Unlike some teams Blyth’s fouling seemed to come out of desperation and late challenges rather than cynical planning, but when Painter took down Owen-Evans he was booked. Tom’s free kick hit the wall.
Hereford’s best move saw the ball worked up to Gordon who laid it out to the overlapping Hodgkiss. The skipper swept a deep ball to the far side. Owen-Evans ran on to it and just headed over the bar when the quality of the quick ball play deserved a goal.
Owen-Evans jumped across for a ball at an angle and had a clash of heads with a Blyth player. The Blyth player got a worse knock, but both thankfully were able to play on and recognised it was one of those things. Blyth brought Hickey on for Painter and then O’Donnell for McKeown. Gordon had worked hard and kept showing through the middle but was unable to produce the end product that Storey provides, and was substituted for Ismail.
McLean was consistently winning good possession for Hereford and a long throw in from Haines was headed on to the bar by a Blyth defender in the six-yard box and then almost forced in at the far post. McLean on the attack again won a throw. This time Haines ball in was cleared but only as far as Lloyd, he threaded a ball through to Smith. Blyth were pushing up and Smith impressively looked across the line and having checked that he was onside, took the ball into the box and wound himself up like a hammer thrower thrashing a howitzer into the roof of the net which if it had kept going would have been halfway to Tupsley such was the ferocity of the finish.
Hereford now had the game won and Ismail had two golden free kicks, one high and hopeless and the other almost in low down right well saved by Mitchell at full stretch. Smith gave way to Sodeinde and went off to a massive round of applause. There was still time for Owen-Evans to be brought down by Cunningham who was booked without advantage being played as the ball ran free into the box.
Referee Mulhall had a mixed game dismissing theatrics and going back for one booking after considerable advantage had been played but also blowing up too quickly on occasions as he did here. It’s a tough job.
Above all though this was McLean’s night and an easy choice for the sponsors Man of the Match. This was one of the finest individual performances since the Beadle years. Ryan has great bouncebackability. He makes a mistake, but he comes right back as if nothing has happened. His pace worries defenders, his control gets better week by week and with several players booked it became hard for Blyth to challenge him. Even with two and sometimes three defenders he still got a dangerous ball in. Like Adama Traore his final ball could be improved but at times he was unplayable, and you almost felt sorry for the Blyth defenders twisting blood vessels to try and stay balanced going backwards. Several times he also raced back to make important defensive contributions.
Come and see him on Saturday against Chester because with more performances like this and at Guiseley, it will not be long before scouts start circling.