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Hereford FC will be looking to bounce back with a big performance and three points on Tuesday evening following another lacklustre outing in the northeast on Saturday. Losses at Blyth, Spennymoor and now Darlington suggest that, if Kings Lynn are the Bulls’ bogey team, the northeast is the club’s bogey region.
The northeast comes to Hereford on Tuesday in the form of South Shields, and one match that did go OK up there this season was the 0-0 draw with a Shields side who were at the time absolutely flying. Since then they’ve stalled and sacked their manager, two things that seem to go together like KFC and cholesterol.
Elliott Dickman replaced Julio Arca in the club’s hotseat just after Christmas, but has not enjoyed much of a honeymoon – more a wet weekend in Borth than an all-expenses paid fortnight in Bora Bora.
They lost five on the bounce recently before arresting that form with wins against Farsley and Bishops Stortford who, it has to be said, are virtually down already. However, the Mariners went down with all hands on deck (sorry, not sure what happened there, lazy cliché, the too-kool-for-skool Bulls News audience doesn’t deserve that) on Saturday, losing 2-1 at home to Boston in front of a 2000+ crowd.
Aaron Martin and Paul Blackett have been among the goals for them so far this season, and the club have collectively scored as many away as Hereford have at home. Martin moved in the summer from Gateshead, and has six goals so far, although he’s been stuck on six for ages. Blackett similarly joined the club this season from Spennymoor in what was a telling move in demonstrating that South Shields seem to be the big fish in the NLN’s northeastern contingent pond. Blackett is now the division’s top scorer following Danny Waldron’s move from Rushall to Southend, with a very healthy 18 goals. A decent threat for Kyle Howkins to savour spending the game nullifying.
Midfielder Jed Abbey has been at Telford and Alvechurch in recent seasons, a CV that would normally make the young Dutchman a possible Hereford target, but no, he’s ended up many miles away instead, presumably lured north by the prospect of full-time football. They also brought in striker Luke James in the summer, a player with bags of Football League experience. He’ll miss this one though with a broken finger.
Dylan Stephenson was brought in on loan from Newcastle last week so they’ve still got plenty of dangerous options up front. Having said that I’ve no idea whether Dylan Stephenson is dangerous or not. One goal in nine grown-up games when on loan at Hamilton isn’t much to go on. If he had a powerful shot I suppose it could be termed ‘Stephenson’s Rocket’ - a bangin’ bang-up-to-date cultural reference there as ever from 1829, with shades of Roy of the Rovers bringing you right up to the last century at least. Next week: how pop music is far too loud these days.
With the backing of owner Geoff Thompson and the revenue from 1000+ season ticket sales, they’re not your typical NLN promotees happy to spend a season or two finding their feet at this level. They would have been expecting to push for back-to-back promotions, and seem to be finding the division trickier than they might have expected. It could be that the uncertainty resulting from Thompson putting the club up for sale before Christmas, as he understandably puts concerns about his health above his ownership of a football club, has affected the momentum gained from the untrammelled success of recent seasons.
A return of five points from the last five games has resulted in Hereford only still being in the play-off positions because Alfreton and Chorley haven’t bothered playing many games. This form, coupled with the team looking a bit leggy on Saturday according to Paul Caddis, and, er, “rubbish”, suggests a need to freshen things up a bit for a game the crowd will be expecting a big reaction in. It’s a small squad but there are options. I liked Adam Livingstone further up the pitch earlier in the season, but perhaps slotting the Scot in at left back and moving Aaron Skinner across to the right should be tried again. The attacking combination of Livingstone and Ceesay on the left would give Shields plenty to think about. I’d also be tempted to find a starting place for Alex Babos, a proven goalscorer in a squad currently not bursting with goals.
With the visitors being full-time, the Tuesday night ‘bus-legs’ concept mentioned here previously will presumably not come into play. They should run out onto the pitch full of energy having spent Monday night in a hotel rather than Tuesday afternoon on a bus.
However, they won’t fancy this one bit given how dominant the hosts can be at home (and 90 minutes of dominance would be good this time), and regardless of how they start they’ll hopefully finish feeling like they’ve been hit by a bus. A big Bulls performance is needed here from the first whistle. Could it be another evening of superb entertainment and euphoric victory under the creaky old Edgar Street lights? Yes, it could.
COYW