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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