Farsley have recently sunk like a stone, and now sit second bottom of the National League North. They contrived to lose 6-0 to Darlington in their last home game, and the latter are no-one’s idea of world beaters this season. Last time out they recovered slightly to only lose 2-1 at Kidderminster. They’ve lost seven of their last ten games, picking up five points from a possible 30 in that time. They’ve ground to a halt as startlingly as Southport have hit the accelerator.
Since winning promotion to the NLN, Farsley haven’t actually had the chance to complete a full season, but in their two truncated goes at it they’ve finished in the top half, above supposedly fancier dans. It could be that some of those fancier dans have been a bit taken aback by the less-than-salubrious set-up at The Citadel, and been caught on the back foot accordingly.
It’ll therefore be a different test on Saturday for the Bulls, who will face a more one-dimensional long-ball-and-knock-downs approach, and a different challenge for the young back four. It’s a tactical approach that has caused the Bulls some headaches before (in every sense), and supporters will be hoping that aimless Farsley punts don’t cause a parting of the Red Sea effect in the Hereford back line allowing a big hairy northerner a tap-in, whilst shaking his head in disbelief.
The last time the Bulls stormed The Citadel in spring 2020 they came away victorious, with Tom Owen Evans and Kelsey Mooney getting the goals in a 2-1 win. That would do nicely on Saturday, although ‘doing a Darlo’ would be even better.
This will be the final game of Krystian Pearce’s suspension, and if the recent new arrivals in defence can be kept on there’s a very solid defensive base there with the Chief’s return on which to build. Jamie Egan in particular against Kidderminster looked like an excellent prospect, and Josh Gowling has done a brilliant job in finding some decent cover at short notice to limit the impact of the recent illness, injury, suspension and exodus crisis. If he can do that in an emergency, it augers well for when he can actually spend some time compiling a shopping list of summer signings in readiness for the second year of his and Steve Burr’s stewardship.
One advantage away from the purely financial of still having reasonable home crowds is perhaps that it encourages managers from bigger clubs to send their raw young talent to Edgar Street on loan rather than to somewhere where they’d be playing in front of three men and a dog, such as the Citadel, as it gives those youngsters a more representative impression of what it’s like to play professionally at a decent level.
It would be lovely to think that the rustiness resulting from a lack of matches in December has now been overcome, and that the squad is now well-oiled again (ie operating smoothly rather than staggering onto the pitch drunk).
It was really encouraging on Tuesday to see James Vincent starting to exert some influence in the middle of the pitch. His contribution this season could still be a telling one. If fellow midfielders Tom Owen-Evans and Maz Kouhyar can carry the form they showed against Kidderminster into this game Farsley will struggle to live with them. TOE was the player seemingly singled out by Harriers fans before the game as the one to watch, and that certainly proved to be the case. In terms of Gowling’s building project for next season, he’d do well to secure the services of the Bulls playmaker asap.
TOE’s a rarity at Hereford as a player who has been at the club since 2018, and as such could perhaps be taken for granted as he’s virtually now part of the furniture, but such complacency would be a mistake given that he’s known about and feared by opposing supporters. Tom’s a valuable asset and was excellent on Tuesday - hats off TOE.
I’m still buzzing from the midweek heroics, so hopefully the players are too. Another win here would set things up very nicely for next Tuesday’s home game with Gloucester as the fixture pile-up gradually disentangles itself. The fog can come back for that too, as it: a/ is now officially a ‘lucky weather condition’, b/ lends an atmospheric Sisters of Mercy concert vibe to proceedings, and c/ tempers the violence of the information screen’s brightness setting very, very slightly.
Anyway, before all that the Farsley blitzkrieg needs to be countered by some no-nonsense defending, with total football at the other end ensuring that the points come back to Edgar Street.
COYW