Tonight's National North League Results

Tonight's National North League results:

AFC Fylde 3 Farsley Celtic 1

Banbury 2 Leamington 2

Chorley 2 Boston 3

Hereford 1 Chester 2

Kettering 1 Curzon Ashton 0

Kings Lynn 1 Buxton 1

Peterborough Sports 1 Gloucester 2 

Hereford are now 11th.

 

REACTION | Yan Klukowski gives his post match thoughts after the 2-1 loss to Chester

Hereford FC  Manager Yan Klukowski gives his post match thoughts after the 2-1 loss to Chester.

Strong Chester side seal win at Edgar Street

Hereford lost 2-1 at home to a strong Chester side this evening.

Charlie Caton put the away side ahead in the 58th minute before Thierry Latty-Fairweather curled home an equaliser in the 74th.

However, Chester regained the lead just five minutes later through Kurt Willoughby after Matty Williams' effort hit the crossbar.

The attendance was 1,639 which included 148 away supporters.

Chester miss golden chances during first half stalemate

Chester have missed some glorious opportunities but it remains goalless at Edgar Street.

In the fifth minute, Dino Visser saved from Charlie Caton before Kurt Willoughby somehow put the rebound wide. Willoughby had another chance in the 21st minute but he blazed his effort high and wide before Visser saved from Rhys Hughes.

Hereford had their best opportunities on the stroke of half time. Thierry Latty-Fairweather shot just wide before Levi Andoh fired over.

TEAM NEWS | Lloyd captains Bulls for Chester match

Ryan Lloyd captains Hereford tonight in the absence of Jared Hodgkiss for tonight's National League North match against Chester.

Hodgkiss had to go off injured during Saturday's game at Southport. He is replaced by Levi Andoh.

Visser; Andoh, Amadi-Holloway, Pendley, Latty-Fairweather; Hanson, Thompson-Sommers, Lloyd, Holmes, McLean; Barnett.

Subs: Pinchard, Storey, Klukowski, Campbell, Livermore.

Klukowski to remain Bulls boss until the end of the season

Yan Klukowski has accepted an offer to remain Hereford's interim manager until the end of the season.

He took over after Josh Gowling left the club on February 5th.

And his record in charge to date is good. 

Five games in charge, three wins, one draw and one defeat.

However Chester tonight will be a difficult game.

Looking back when Klukowski took over he said he didn't want the job.

 

There may be some on the club board who are now hoping he will change his mind. 

 

Klukowski has commented on staying as manager.

  

"I have enjoyed taking charge of the team so far and would like to thank the players for their support and effort, " he told the OS.

 

"Their attitudes have been fantastic and our recent wins have been down to their hard work.

"I’d also like to thank Jared and the rest of the staff who have been a great help and support to me, and of course to the fans who have offered some very kind messages of support. 

"We will continue to work hard and do our best for the club."

Tonight In The National North League

There are seven fixtures taking place in the National North League this evening.

AFC Fylde v Farsley Celtic

Banbury v Leamington

Chorley v Boston

Hereford v Chester

Kettering v Curzon Ashton

Kings Lynn v Buxton

Peterborough Sports v Gloucester 

Goal-Less At Bradford PA

One National North League fixture this evening.

Bradford PA 0 Scarborough 0

Fans Urged To Support Our Football Team

Following the announcement that Jon Hale is standing down from the HFC Board, HUST would like to acknowledge the pivotal role that Jon played in re-establishing our Football Club at Edgar Street. He returned to the Chair again and has moved things forward with perseverance and enthusiasm. On behalf of all supporters, we would like to thank him for his contribution to the Edgar Street cause.

Whatever happens off the field of play, we are all here to support our football team.  Tuesday night’s match versus Chester is no different. HUST Chairman, Richard Tomkins says “Two footballing teams in some good form, and I don’t mean on the television! Hereford and Chester represent two Clubs who have kept football in their City alive through difficult times. Let’s cheer our team on and preserve football at Edgar Street”.

Board Statement Thanking Jon Hale

The Hereford FC board has issued the following statement:

The Hereford FC Board of Directors would like to place on record it’s thanks to Jon Hale for his hard work and dedication during his time as Chairman.

Hereford FC Vice Chair, Peter Churchus said: “We are all very thankful to Jon for his commitment to the club and his leadership and support in the boardroom over the past couple of seasons. 

“We wish Jon well for the future and look forward to welcoming him back to Edgar Street as a supporter in the very near future.”

“On the footballing front, whilst the search for a new manager continues, we would like to place on record our ongoing thanks to Yan, Jared and the players for their efforts, and of course for two fantastic wins on the road, we look forward to welcoming everyone to Edgar Street tomorrow evening to cheer them on when we host Chester.”

 

Winning Machine

Another midweeker for Hereford FC on Tuesday as they face high-flying Chester, and after the joys of victory at Fylde last Tuesday and Southport on Saturday, this one’s under the Edgar Street lights. The jury’s still out on whether home advantage is actually an advantage for the Bulls, but a repeat of that good form shown recently a long way north of the Edgar Street lights would do very nicely.

This is the third attempt to get this game on following postponements earlier in the winter. It’s certainly not going to feel like a Mediterranean beach resort on Tuesday evening for the Edgar Street faithful, but this time the game looks sure to go ahead. Consequently, this is the third go I’ve had at previewing it, so what follows may feel like stumbling across an episode of Dad’s Army that you’ve watched more than a few times before. It’s Kettering at home next and that isn’t a rearranged one that’s been previously previewed, so that preview will be like watching a brand new episode of Dad’s Army, although as a selling point that wouldn’t sway even me and I’ll be the one writing it.

Anyway, all of the above space was supposed to be filled with exciting news about the new manager, but given that there’s no news and no new manager, and now no chairman either, you got Dad’s Army instead.

Chester travel down with the smell of 4G still fresh in their nostrils after winning 2-1 on the plastic at Bradford on Saturday, taking the points with an injury-time winner having been behind for 80 minutes.

Having misfired hopelessly last season, the Seals have clicked this time around with new manager and club stalwart Calum McIntyre in charge. Ex-York striker Kurt Willoughby arrived at the club in the summer and has scored 23 goals for them so far this season, and classy captain Declan Weeks will look to pull the strings in midfield. So a non-event of a season can be followed by a successful one with a change of manager for a club of a similar shape, size and profile to HFC. That's certainly a straw to be clutched at. A 23-goal striker should be top of the new manager’s shopping list perhaps, although there's not much incentive for Stewart Phillips to travel all that way from Hereford for training.

There’s no two ways about it – Chester are hard to beat. No-one’s lost fewer games than them, and Tuesday’s visitors haven’t lost away since 20 August, their sole loss in 17 games away from the Deva this season. Hugely impressive.

Of course, one of the club’s few defeats this season was at the hands of the Bulls in August, a Luke Haines rocket late in the game taking the points at the Deva. Haines is still out injured after an unlikely episode with a beanbag, and, worryingly, the player he deputised for as captain earlier in the season, Jared Hodgkiss, limped off at Southport and won’t start here, although Yan Klukowski suggested that he was earmarked to sit this one out anyway to give him a rest. Another rester could be Ty Barnett, with Colin Oppong an obvious replacement for the first hour at least. Whoever the lone front man is I’m sure they’d appreciate the supporting forward players being a bit closer to them to take advantage of any knock-downs. 

This game was originally scheduled for December when Chester were flying. They then slowed down promisingly ahead of the second attempt to get it played, managing to draw seven games in a row, but irritatingly since then they’ve got back on track, winning three of their last four. Automatic promotion looks unlikely but they’re well on target to compete in the play-offs.

The hosts have bounced back from that meek home loss to Curzon Ashton by completing two doubles in a week on the Lancashire coast. Is this the true potential of the squad finally emerging? Those horror shows at home against Banbury and Curzon Ashton are too fresh in the memory to jump to too many crazily optimistic conclusions, but you never know. A hat-trick of doubles achieved in eight days? The clamour for Yan to reconsider would grow.

Aneurin Livermore looks like an intriguing addition to the squad, and should start with oodles of goodwill in the bank for agreeing to play for free. He’ll hopefully get at least a few minutes in this one to demonstrate whether he might be worth courting for next season.

With Haines and Hodgkiss, the two talkers in the squad, missing, there may not be too much on-the-field cajoling within the team, but if the football can do the talking that’ll do just fine. Actually the skipper doesn’t so much talk on the pitch as do an impression of a golden retriever with a sore throat, or the randy stags I count as my neighbours in deepest Herefordshire.

A couple more wins from the remaining 12 games should be enough to remove relegation from this season’s equation. The players have shown that they’re capable of that in five days flat, so that shouldn’t be a problem now that they’re a winning machine oozing consistency. Winning ten of those remaining 12 games would almost certainly book a play-off place. I know, I know, but I almost feel duty-bound to mention it whilst we’re in winning machine territory.

Dads Army, randy stags – what else could this be other than a preview of a football match between Hereford and Chester?

COYW

Club Need Extra Volunteers For Chester

Hereford FC are looking for extra help tomorrow evening on the turnstiles for the visit of Chester.

'We need turnstile volunteers for tomorrow night's match from 6:45pm. 

No experience necessary but you'll need access to a mobile device. 

If you can help, please get in touch with Rob at volunteers@herefordfc.co.uk

Holmes In National North Team Of The Week

 

Hereford's Jack Holmes is in the National North League team of the week.

He scored the only goal of the game for the Bulls at Southport last Saturday.

We Have To Keep That Momentum For Chester Said Klukowski

Luke Haines After Scoring The Only Goal Of The Game Against Chester Last Season At Edgar Street

A game to look forward to at Edgar Street tomorrow evening with the visit of promotion candidates Chester City.

And after two away wins Hereford interim manager Yan Klukowski will be hoping for another solid performance.

"Chester are a good side," said Klukowski.

"But we have to have confidence off the back of what we've done this week.

"We have to keep that momentum.

"It's very difficult after losing games to flick that switch and get back to winning ways.

"When you are in that groove, in that rhythm let's stay in it as best we can." 

Tickets for the game can be purchased in advance at: 

https://herefordfc.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/chester

Hereford 6/4 To Defeat Chester Tomorrow

Hereford are 6/4 to defeat Chester at Edgar Street tomorrow evening.

Seven days that offer would have been more generous but since then Hereford have won away games at both Fylde and Southport.

Currently Chester are 5th in the table and Hereford 11th.

Hereford home record is just six wins and four draws from 16 games. Chester's away form is excellent with only one defeat so far this season. Out of 17 games they've won eight and drawn eight. 

Last Saturday Hereford won 1-0 at Southport whilst Chester won 2-1 at Bradford PA.

Recent form:

Hereford WDLWW

Chester LWWDW

Hereford 6/4  Draw 9/4  Chester 7/4

Hereford Had Some Defending To Do At Southport

Hereford had to defend for much of yesterday's game at Southport especially in the last twenty minutes or so.

A final selection of pictures from the game, some of them showing Hereford just able to keep a clean sheet.

 

Second Half Pictures From Southport

A selection of pictures from the second half of yesterday's game between Southport and Hereford.

 

Could Klukowski be in charge until the end of the season?

With news that Hereford no longer have a chairman or a new manager, could interim boss Yan Klukowski take charge of the club for the remainder of the season?

The player-coach took on the role following the dismissal of Josh Gowling on February 5. At the time, Hereford said they would looking to appoint a new manager 'as soon as possible'. However, three weeks on, it seems that the club won't be making an appointment any time soon.

It is understood that Hereford drew up a shortlist of five or six prospective candidates, with second interviews due to have taken place on Monday. However, BN understands that the club's favoured choice turned down the offer to become the new manager after talking to his current club.

And with Bulls chairman Jon Hale now deciding to step down, where does this leave the club? Thankfully, Klukowski has managed to steady the ship on the pitch with 10 points accumulated out of a possible 15. That means that, bar a catastrophe, Hereford show now not be dragged into any relegation battle. 

So with a lot of upheaval taking place off the pitch, a safe pair of hands is no doubt what the club currently needs. One could argue that, if a new manager is not brought in now, they won't have a chance to assess the squad before deciding which players to keep next season.

However, on the flip side, Hereford won't have to pay any compensation if they recruit a current manager after his current runs out in the summer. 

And who will now run the club? Peter Churchus is the vice-chairman and chaired the AGM on Thursday night. So one would assume he will take on the chairmanship role on an interim basis. However, whether he wants it permanently is anyone's guess.

Holmes And Away

Harwood Bull was at Southport yesterday afternoon watching Hereford win 1-0.

Hereford made it two away wins in the space of 5 days, following up their impressive victory at Fylde with a less emphatic but well deserved 1-0 success at Southport, with Jack Holmes the scorer. The Bulls kept the same starting line up for this game – Visser in goal, a back four of Hodgkiss, Pendley, Amadi-Hollloway and Latty-Fairweather. Hanson deep, Lloyd and Thompson-Sommers holding the middle together and Maclean and Holmes supporting Barnett up front from wide positions.

The Bulls almost got off to a dream start when after two minutes Maclean was through one on one with the keeper. He took the ball round the goalie but with the angle fairly narrow tried to roll the ball in and a Southport defender got across to clear off the line.

The Bulls had the better of the first half with Southport looking sluggish and out of sorts. Having said that the home side came close to taking the lead in 14 minutes when a looping header by Anson dropped onto the angle of post and crossbar. There was a break in the play after 27 minutes when Hodgkiss went down with an injury and needed attention. 

He was unable to continue and was replaced by Levi Andoh, who made an impact almost immediately with a deep cross to Barnett who headed powerfully but into the side netting.

Hereford continued to dominate but didn’t create any clear chances. Southport had a couple of shots on goal one of which caused a bit of a scramble in the box but came to nothing. Overall a fairly confident performance by the Bulls in the first half. KTS was playing well, showing a bit more of a combative edge to his play and moving the ball effectively – basically doing what Lloyd does. Tyrone up front was winning some high balls but as is often the case his knock downs weren’t being picked up by a Hereford player.

Half time: Southport 0 Hereford 0

The Bulls came out unchanged for the second half, and got the breakthrough within five minutes. Holmes showed good control on the edge of the box, twisting and turning. With his back to goal he turned to get the shot off, and with a shot across the goal to the far post looking likely manged to squeeze a low one through a crowded penalty area inside the keeper’s near post, for a deserved lead.

If truth be told, the Bulls had a platform to build on and should have increased their lead against a poor Southport side. The closest they came to that was when another shot from Holmes was pushed wide by McMillan, Maclean turned the loose ball back across the area and it flashed across the face of the goal with no-one in a red shirt running in for what would have been an easy finish.

Southport started to come back into the game and Hereford endured a period of intense pressure and a series of corners. The Bulls seemed unable to clear the ball or doing anything to relieve the pressure. Visser made a couple of good saves including a point blank stop from a Doyle header. One blot on Visser’s performance was poor kicking, including two goal kicks that went straight into touch.

Yellow Card For Levi Andoh?

Really?

Holmes went off on 70 minutes to be replaced by Storey, a more positive substitution than we became used to in the Gowling era. His pace always has the potential to stretch defences, but he missed a great chance to put KTS through on goal with a badly overhit pass. With two minutes left Josh Miles made a good run for Southport and his low cross caused havoc in the Bulls defence but was somehow scrambled away.

Following that scare Hereford managed to a get a grip of things and played the time out. 

Amadi-Holloway Clears For Hereford

Storey got a yellow card for time wasting – having run the ball into the corner he kicked the ball away and received an immediate and totally unnecessary booking.  

After 3 minutes of time added on the ref brought things to a close. Another good result on the road, although we have to be grateful that Southport weren’t really on their game, otherwise things might have been different.

Full time: Southport 0 Hereford 1

Hereford FC: Visser, Hodgkiss (Andoh 28), Thompson-Sommers, McLean (Pinchard 90+2), Lloyd, Amadi-Holloway, Hanson, Pendley, Barnett, Holmes (Storey 70), Latty-Fairweather

Subs: Oppong, Livermore

 

Southport FC: McMillan, Oliver, C Doyle, Anson, Woods, Munro, Archer, Walton, Quansah, Watson, Bainbridge

Subs: Goudie, Miles, Heath, Hmami, Carberry

 

Attendance 1,015 (140 away)

 

Man of the Match? Not an easy call. Unlike Tuesday when Amadi-Holloway was by some distance the best player on the pitch there was no absolute stand out. My pick would be KTS for the reasons given earlier.

What else? Ah yes, the pies. My meat and potato pie scored a good eight out of ten and the individual cottage pies looked good and got a similar score, and the two ladies on the pie stall were very pleasant. The catering wasn’t all good though, had to wait about twenty minutes for someone to come and man the drinks van.

As we know, our pick for Gowling’s replacement has turned us down. Klukowski did say that he’s not interested in the job permanently, but maybe having seen that he can get a good performance out of this group of players he might think again? Given our budgetary constraints it might not be a bad move.

We’re in the dizzy heights of the top half of the table now. The last two performances have shown positivity, commitment and good teamwork. Long may that continue.