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Hereford FC host Chorley on Saturday as a tricky run of games continues, with this one against the early pacesetting Magpies preceding meetings with Scarborough, Scunthorpe and then Kidderminster.
A 1-1 draw in Lancashire in August gave an early indication of the potential of this season’s Bulls side, particularly offering evidence of their doggedness away from home. Since then, Chorley have been there or thereabouts at the top of the table, and currently sit in third place four points behind leaders Curzon Ashton, and five points better off than the Bulls having played a game more.
As ever they’re rock solid at home, but have failed to win six of their ten away games. They’ve impressively drawn at Scunthorpe and won at Brackley, but they’ve also been hammered at Marine. Bringing that Marine form to Edgar Street on Saturday would be ideal.
Last season they briefly threatened to finish as runners-up before ending up fourth.
Evesham-born Magpies’ manager Andy Preece signed a contract extension at the start of the season following a busy summer overhauling his squad, trying to replace a couple of big-name departures, and in the process ending up with ten new players. Mo Touray signed as a striker, a player who had a loan spell at Hereford, scoring one goal in 18 appearances whilst at Edgar Street. He’s improved on that a bit with his new club, with four goals in 19.
Clipping the wings of Sam Bird early on with some beefy challenges could be a good idea as he’s their long throw specialist (beefy challenges on his arms would therefore be preferable, although that’s easier said than done if you want to stay on the pitch). Having said that he hasn’t played too much this season, but presumably like most other clubs they’ve got a deputy long-throw specialist who can still hurl the ball further than Alex Babos. Er, just to clarify, that should say further than Alex Babos CAN – anyone hurling Alex Babos will be in as much danger of an early bath as someone trying to tread on the arms of Sam Bird.
Ex-Bull Harvey Smith is now a fixture for them at the back, and another club stalwart is club captain and goalkeeper Matt Urwin, with over 300 appearances for the club and ever-present this season.
Ex-Colchester right winger Courtney Senior recently joined the Magpies on loan from Rochdale, and brings plenty of EFL experience with him. He’s pacy and direct and will give Bulls captain Lewis Hudson plenty to think about.
Losing influential wide man Justin Johnson to the bright lights of Macclesfield and another key player Carlton Ubaezuonu to Scunthorpe in the summer could have hit them hard this season, but they’ve bounced back from those losses admirably, which points to Preece’s capability as a manager. That capability seems to go hand-in-hand with a propensity to pick up yellow cards on the touchline – sound familiar?
The hosts go into this one following defeat at Darlington on Tuesday night bloodied but unbowed. They’re still in touch with the business end of the table, and a win here would keep them in and around clubs with much bigger budgets, such as Scunthorpe and Kidderminster.
That long trip and game in midweek were undertaken whilst Chorley had their feet up with no fixture. Well, I assume they were training rather than putting their feet up, but even that would have been a lot more cushy than a hundred hours on a coach and a competitive game of football. A tweak or two to the starting XI here should hopefully mean that there’s no big disparity in freshness between the two teams as a result.
Talking of freshness or otherwise, Andy Williams, Matt Preston, Aaron Skinner, and Preston Bitemo all missed out at Darlington due to injury, with Tate Campbell suspended and Aaron Chapman seemingly at least temporarily out of favour. Of those, Willo, Matt Preston and the taller of the Aarons could make a return here.
Sammy Robinson started the Darlo game, his first for a while, and didn’t even get booked. Also in the plus column, by my reckoning Tate Campbell should be back for this – a huge boost. Having said that my reckoning when it comes to suspensions is usually shaky, which is a bit embarrassing as it suggests that I can’t count to three.
This fixture last season was frustrating, and saw Chorley take the points with a 1-0 win. That day they didn’t have the injuries or suspensions that they’ll have on Saturday, but even so they were pretty one-dimensional. Given that they’re currently a bit short on numbers this looks like a good time to play them, and the Bulls’ overall record against the Magpies could do with some improvement.
With Chorley a virtual dead-cert play-off rival, this is a top-seven six-pointer, and as such should hopefully drag a few waverers out of the horrible, packed Christmas shopping maelstrom and through the sacred Edgar Street turnstiles instead.
COYW