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There is of course now little to play for but pride following defeat at Spennymoor on Saturday, and with the pressure off the Bulls could perhaps play with a bit more freedom to make this an entertaining season ender for all but the hardy few intending to travel up to Gateshead.
Ryan McLean will be back in contention here following suspension on Saturday, but other than that Josh Gowling must use the same players who have found it impossible recently to put a decent run of results together, with that squad looking increasingly one-dimensional and threadbare of late.
That elusive strong spine everyone wants their squad to have has certainly been lacking in 2021/22, with arguably only Brandon Hall up to scratch in one of the spine positions. Krystian Pearce started like an express train, albeit a bit of a chuggy one, but seems to have finished like a lot of the trains I try to catch – cancelled. I had high hopes for James Vincent as a controlling midfielder but it hasn’t really worked out for him, and the issues up front have been well documented.
It seems that, given budgetary constraints,
a huge chunk of luck will be needed next season alongside shrewd recruitment.
By this, I mean a risk will have to be taken in locking more of the key players
in to contracts to prevent them being poached during the season, and hoping
that they stay fit and therefore deliver maximum bang for the contractual buck
over the whole season. It certainly won't be an easy balancing act for the board and management team.
Anyway, back to the here and now, and perhaps clutching at straws a little, over the last five games the Bulls’ record has been LWLWL, so perhaps a win is due here.
Brandon Hall was in scintillating form on Saturday, and he’ll presumably have plenty to do here against one of the best teams in the league. That said, they specialise in 1-0 wins, so they’re not the most gung-ho, preferring to just do enough up front and defend like a brick wall, or at least a brick wall that moves around and tackles and heads footballs. You know, one of those brick walls.
New centre forward Luke Haines will presumably be partnered up front by Andreas Sondergaard in a final, desperate attempt to address the season-long issue of not having any strikers.
The Saints are always there or thereabouts at this time of the season, finishing third three times in the last four years, but this time around they’ve threatened to better that record, having sat in the top two more or less since the start.
A surprise 1-0 home loss to Blyth Spartans on Saturday though means that they’ll almost certainly finish second to champions-elect Gateshead this season. However, if they win at Edgar Street and also win their final game, and Gateshead lose their two remaining games, including at home to Hereford on Saturday, they’ll take the title. So, it’s hugely unlikely, but it does mean that they’ll be putting some effort in on Monday and not saving themselves for the play-offs.
Ex-Bull Jaanai Gordon hasn’t found life easy at Brackley since his mid-season move away from Edgar Street, managing just one goal in 13 appearances. The striker came on as a second half substitute on Saturday, and perhaps will start here if things need to be freshened up following that damaging loss to Spartans.
Another ex-Bull, Jordan Cullinane-Liburd, was playing regularly for the Saints earlier in the season, but has recently seemingly fallen out of favour and is an unlikely starter.
Powerful striker Lee Ndlovu has 14 goals in the league this season, and Connor Franklin has one of those long throws that have caused Hereford some defensive heebie-jeebies over the course of the season.
It would be good to go out with a bang at home against a team that’s been ultra-consistent in grinding out those 1-0 wins since August, and of course for some (quite a few?) in the Bulls squad it’ll be their last chance to shine in front of their own supporters.
I did wonder whether there would be the added incentive of finishing as high as possible in the league to maximise finishing position prize money, which could then be added to the Squad Builder fund, but it would appear that there isn’t actually any prize money, for anyone.
Oh well, playing for pride it is then, and pride can get you a long way, as can playing without pressure, and Brackley will be feeling like sinners rather than Saints for choking against Blyth, so all in all this could be an unlikely home banker and worth a watch. After all, it’s always a long wait until mid-August.
COYW