Nigel Preece watched Hereford draw with Southport at Edgar Street yesterday afternoon.
It was good to be back to normal. Five weeks since the last ordinary Saturday home game and I was looking forward to it.
My local train into Cardiff was busier than usual, people off to the South Wales derby (lunchtime ko) with a higher proportion of clone island on display.
After arriving in Hereford I had a bite to eat in the butter market, a beer in the Orange Tree, two more in the Barrels, good to see no sign of dry January in those establishments.
The minutes applause before the game for those supporters we lost over the last year was poignant, some familiar faces such as John Powell and, more personally, a lovely gentleman who used to stand on my patch of the Len Weston Terrace; the latter had been a Football League referee in the 70s, I used to tease him when refs failed to play advantage or made poor decisions, he would have had a few comments off me during this one.
We lined up with our latest new keeper, a sound debut from him, a back four of Robbo, Bartley, Howkins and Hudson (no sign of Preston, injured apparently), D’Ath and Mitchell in centre mid, Ceesay and White out wide, Rock DJ (see Mark Jones's preview) behind Rose up front.
I'd like to report the first half was a feast of flowing, attacking football but sadly not. A couple of efforts each, the visitors probably came closer; an early shot from hefty centre forward Proctor comfortably pushed over by Robertson and a skewed shot from Lloyd well wide when he should have done better. We offered little, the ball pinged around their 6 yard box a couple of times, a White shot in a good position was headed away for a fruitless corner and the same player had a free kick easily saved.
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| The Free Kick Was Given After Rose Was Brought Down |
The most engagement in our little group on the terrace was the discussion over Robbo at right back and Bartley at centre half …. interchangeable, total football, where's Cruyff … ok, ok, you had to be there but we had to enliven the lack of on pitch excitement somehow.
I hate the 3.35 exodus from the Meadow End to the bar but it was difficult to blame anyone this time, though a nice, hot cup of tea might have been a preferable beverage on a chilly afternoon.
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| Perhaps The Best Chance Of The Half Was Rose's Header Just Before The Break - But It Went Wide |
As usual I failed to bag a half time draw win, Turner out …. again!
The second half continued in the same vein as the first, an early change, Campbell replacing the limping D’Ath made little difference. Perhaps we had a little more of the play but we created next to nothing. When Paul Caddis arrived 18 months ago he was a much needed breath of fresh air into a tired club, one of the things I recall him saying was along the lines of he'd get angry if opportunities to cross the ball were wasted; well, today there were many of those, the ball would end up being passed ponderously across the midfield and then further back with any opportunity to exploit space long squandered. That up and at ‘em attitude we had seems to have disappeared. Yes sometimes, it was a bit over chaotic, perhaps if we had a higher percentage of possession and an ability to control the tempo of a game that might be fine but, at the moment, we seem short both ways.
It wasn't really a huge surprise, therefore, when Southport capitalised with a quick, effective break, even if Lloyd's shot for the goal seemed to go rather fortunately through two pairs of defensive legs.
What was looking, bleakly, like a typical afternoon of complete frustration (not for the first time against Southport) did then spark into life. We responded to the setback positively on and off the pitch, McGlynn on for the disappointing White helped break up Southport’s shape and a neat Rose lay off was swept home by Ceesay from around 12 yards, a difficult finish made to look easy.
That was followed by a decent outbreak of football with both sides going all out for the win. Credit to Southport for not resorting to shithousery just to hold on to their point, but actually trying to win the game, maybe a sign of their growing realisation that we were no great shakes on the day. Cowley, already on for new signing DJ, and Willo (too late imo) for Rose helped us in our late bid for the winner but for all our increase in tempo and energy we never really came close to pinching it; one block from their keeper and a couple of crosses fizzed into the danger area might have produced something but it was the visitors who threatened in added time with a shot just over and a dangerous free kick and corner, but a draw it was and that was the right result. 2490 in attendance with 50 from Southport giving good support to their team.
Rose Suffered An Injury Near The End Of 90 Minutes
Famous fan Talking Bill, profiled in the match programme, when not at a drawn game, will always ask would you have taken a further 15 minutes? I'm not sure if I would have on this occasion, by 4.57 I was far too cold anyway and was looking forward to the post match warmth in the Beer in Hand where the general mood was frustrated bordering on grumpy.
Work to do to turn our season back on an upward curve, a week may be a long time in politics but a month since positivity at Scunthorpe seems an age ago. Clearly Paul Caddis shares everyone's frustration and with no midweek game (they then come thick and fast) we have two training sessions to try and work on things but finding a way to instill a more positive attitude and approach may be needed as much as any tactical work. I hope to see an improvement at Ratcliffe next Saturday, same result please as my last train trip to Manchester (for Curzon Ashton) in the autumn but with less rail chaos. Asking too much?
Hereford: Richardson,
Bartley, Howkins, Hudson, Robinson, White, D’Ath, Mitchell, Ceesay,
Sturridge, Rose. Subs: McGlynn, Cowley, Williams, Derricott, Campbell.