Assuming they make it back from Blyth in time, Hereford FC will be hosting Alfreton Town on Saturday in a National League North match that offers a golden opportunity to make it two wins on the bounce, and to retain a peripheral interest in play-off qualification. Both clubs have links with Ivan Hollett, and fittingly meet in the week of his sad passing.
With both club goalkeepers absent last
weekend with Covid, emergency cover in the form of young Ollie Battersby from Grimsby
was needed. A new goalie and suddenly four goals scored away from home. It
seems that Brandon Hall was responsible for the Bulls’ shyness in front of goal
this season all along – not the most logical culprit. It looks like Battersby could be back on Saturday too, so hopefully that will trigger another four goals at the other end.
There should be a marked difference in motivation between the two sides in this match. Alfreton have precisely nothing to play for, and are playing like it, whereas another win here for Hereford would keep the pressure on York (who won’t be picking up any points this weekend as they’re playing in the Trophy), Chorley and Southport. Indeed, if Southport lose at home to Kettering (which is admittedly a long shot) and Hereford ease past an Alfreton side who’ll presumably take to the field wearing flip-flops and smoking cigars, the Bulls will edge back into the play-offs, although they’ve played more games than their most obvious play-off rivals.
With an average of two points a game needed from here on in, this one simply has to produce three points, given that it’s arguably the easiest game left. Fylde away next Saturday looks a whole lot harder. One thing’s for sure - the home side will almost certainly have to work a good deal harder for their goals this weekend following the Keystone Cops chaos among Blyth’s defenders and goalie last week.
Midfielder Bailey Hobson has nine league goals for the Reds this season, closely followed by big Matt Rhead, with the veteran striker on eight, including a header in a comeback 2-2 draw with Southport at home last weekend, which suggests that maybe they aren’t quite entirely focusing on hitting the beach just yet. Gambian left winger Yusifu Ceesay was a menace when the teams met in Derbyshire earlier in the season, so a fit-again Jared Hodgkiss could have a busy afternoon.
In that game, Hereford salvaged a point with a late Luke Haines equaliser in a 3-3 draw. A ‘feature’ of the game was some Southporty nonsense from the hosts, and some naivity in dealing with it from Hereford. Lesson learned, hopefully.
Saturday’s visitors have drawn just once in 16 away matches, which is an encouraging statistic as Hereford look to move away from being the draw specialists they became recently.
Alfreton started the season well, and flirted with the play-off positions themselves before Christmas, but since then they’ve gradually slipped out of contention. They tend towards the ‘get it forward quickly and hope for the best’ tactical approach, but if the Bulls are on their game again the visitors won’t appreciate defending against quick and incisive passing football, or an on-song Ryan McLean running at them. Given that they are partial to a bit of that Southporty nonsense, the referee will hopefully not be one of those gullible ones. Presumably Luke Haines will point out to the ref during the game where he feels he’s going wrong, but perhaps with enough subtlety to avoid talking himself into the book this week.
With that aforementioned Covid situation in the Bulls camp causing a few problems with the squad in terms of the proportion of it made up of loanees, big Mo Faal found himself sacrificed on the alter of National League Rules on Saturday. They presumably had to build a new alter to fit him on, but whether he’ll be the one to miss out again remains to be seen. Josh Gowling saw signs in Mo Touray’s performance at Blyth to suggest that there could be more to come from him, and he’ll be keen not to fall behind newcomer Andre Wright in the striking pecking order. How luxurious it feels to actually have a striking pecking order, although it no longer includes Miles Storey, who is out for the rest of the season. It would be good to have the opportunity to see what he can do in a 4-4-2 next season.
Harry Pinchard pulled the strings effectively last weekend, and found the net in typically classy fashion to put the game to bed. He’ll hopefully start again here. His relatively early substitution was presumably to keep him fresh for the challenges to come, although he should be fairly fresh anyway having only played a handful of minutes following injury. He could have a big say in things between now and May.
OK, the Blyth defending last week was more Dick van Dyke than Virgil van Dijk, but it still had to be taken advantage of. If that fabulous performance and result in the northeast can be used as a catalyst for another of those mini-winning runs that have been a feature of this season, the timing could not be better.
Finally, given the date, I considered putting an April Fools thing in this preview, but hearing in the week that Lincoln, until recently, had been blaring out an air raid siren every time they got a corner there didn’t seem to be much point. Truth, as ever, is stranger than fiction.
COYW