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To Chester then, and an in-form Hereford FC attempt to continue their exceptional away form, away form that's perhaps starting to spill over into home form, a combination that could simply be described as ‘form’.
‘Form’ hasn’t been a thing since ascension to the National League North, so if it does establish itself as a thing over the next few weeks it’ll feel a bit odd, but don’t worry, don’t feel the need to go to your local pharmacy, it’s just a symptom of supporting a football team that’s better than most of the other teams in the same division. I know, I know…weird.
A currently charging Bulls side presumably could have taken more than 500 supporters with them up the border to the northern Marches, but that was the allocation, and 500 should make plenty of noise (and be plenty well-behaved for the sake of the club’s reputation/coffers/points tally - pleeease).
Chester are quite handily in a mini-slump having picked up just two points from their last four league games, around getting dumped out of the Cup at Scarborough. That form has seen them slip out of the NLN play-off positions.
Last weekend they were given a right old seeing to at Curzon, losing 4-0, which suggests that Hereford are five goals better than the Cestrians. 0-5 here would send a message to the rest of the division, but unsurprisingly the hosts have taken measures to tighten up and improve ahead of this match, having brought in Will Hugill on loan from Burnley. (Hereford would have done exactly the same if the tables were turned of course, in terms of pushing the financial boat out into the choppy waters of the loan market ocean on the back of poor form to attempt to ensure that they were competitive in this fixture).
Ex-Bulls Mitch Hancox and Ben Pollock were recruited as Seals in the summer, but both have been bench-warmers of late.
The hosts are typically very, very good defensively at the Deva, and true to form only Kidderminster have conceded fewer goals at home than Chester so far. However, manager Calum McIntyre is clearly fishing about for a successful starting XI combination two months into the season, given that he withdrew Declan Weeks at half-time last Saturday, a player who is normally the fulcrum of the side.
You’d expect Chester to be up towards the top challenging as one of the bigger clubs in the division, but they have some of the same problems as Hereford in terms of being well supported by punters but not so well supported by a local financial success story with bottomless pockets.
Hereford sit in fifth position in the league table after comfortably seeing off Farsley last weekend. It’s starting to feel like the Bulls are winning games because they’re fundamentally better than who they’re playing, rather than randomly winning now and again for no real reason other than winning randomly is how most clubs operate in the National League North. The former should result in far more frequent wins than the latter. It’s been some time since the club was in that position, and in fact it’s never been in that position in the NLN before.
A charging bull is always a handful for a prancing attention-seeker in the middle of an arena, so hopefully the momentum of this current charge will counteract any baffling decisions from the black-clad matador who’s been dredged up for this one from the FA’s stock of short-sighted inadequates.
A shrewd observer suggested to me that Aurio Teixeira, in his new role as freelance roaming menace, is now being played in positions that keep him as far away from the referee as possible. That works for me. If he can unleash a worldy from wherever he happens to be on the pitch in this one, akin to the one he scored in this fixture last season, no-one will be complaining, and his performance on Saturday should ensure that he starts here. There will be no Sammy Robinson though as his suspension kicks in, but more worrying is that the injury he picked up against Farsley may keep him out for longer than his three-match ban. A big miss, especially as Aaron Skinner is a long-term absentee in a similar role, but Ryan Bartley is more than capable cover. Like, much, much more than capable cover.
Oxford and Marine at home follow this one, and without wishing to suggest that the home form is back following that 3-0 win against Farsley, which was far from being the best performance in October, Kidderminster may yet dread coming over for a festive get-together on Boxing Day if things continue to click, and if things continue to click that could be a very noisy sell-out.
Chester won’t be relishing this, and given that historically they're a rock-solid home outfit at this level that’s a huge compliment to the efforts of Paul Caddis and the squad so far this season. Forza tori.
COYW