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Hereford FC travel up to Greater Manchester on Saturday looking to get back to winning ways at Radcliffe FC, after a difficult run of losses then postponements and finally flatness recently, a flatness hopefully solely attributable to illness in the Hereford camp.
There is, unfortunately, not a great deal to inspire unbridled confidence going into this one as there seems to be absolutely nothing between Hereford and other mid-tablers, such as recent opponents Southport and Leamington, in terms of quality or consistency at the moment. It’s always a bad sign for me when I go into a not-looking-at-the-table phase, which I most definitely am currently in.
However, it’s important to find things to be optimistic about, in football as in life, and there’s still a lingering feeling that the Bulls can find it easier sometimes away from home where there are more opportunities to counterattack. This ability was in evidence at the start of the season, and if it can resurface now the back-to-back games against Radcliffe and Peterborough could yet get things back on track.
Yusifu Ceesay continues to offer a rare ray of hope when all around him seems far more perspiration than inspiration, although Kyle Howkins was again solid last Saturday despite having been unwell in the week leading up to the game, and it’s to his credit that he insisted on playing. It has to be said that Big Kyle is banking an awful lot of credit this season. Ryan Bartley started the Southport game relatively quietly but grew into it. If he can be encouraged to realise how much of an impact he can have at this level, he could be another to add some inspiration, to fire some dynamism and enthusiasm into a side that just seems off it a bit. Hopefully Matt Preston will be back for this, allowing the Derby loanee to start at right back rather than centre back, with licence to get forward to enable him to spend more time further up the pitch in areas where he can hurt the opposition. Preston’s return would be a welcome one, with his influence steadily growing as the season has progressed.
Lawson Dath tried to run off a knock early in the second half last Saturday but couldn’t, so if it’s still troublesome Tate Campbell can come in, and some authority from him in owning the midfield area would be good to see. One player who won’t be starring as a midfield general for the Bulls is Aurio Teixeira, who moved on to Redditch in the week. The use Paul Caddis makes of the money that departure frees up could be critical to how the club fares between now and the end of the season, so news of Teixeira’s replacement will be eagerly awaited.
Declan McGlynn didn’t score last weekend but at least he had a couple of shots in his short cameo appearance, in the spirit of what Caddis said would be the approach when he took over as manager, namely lots of crosses, shots and an ‘if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win the raffle’ approach. That seems to have gone missing. It’s an approach that encourages defensive slip-ups, and defensive slip-ups cause more goals than creative attacking brilliance at this level, I’d wager, although that’s a wager backed by no evidence whatsoever.
So perhaps more use could be made of the American as he’s clearly keen on buying raffle tickets. The player who scores more goals per minutes played than anyone else at the club, Andy Williams, might also be given more than two or three minutes here.
In disappointingly dropping points at home to Radcliffe in August, it was easy to look critically at Hereford’s performance and miss the fact that the Greater Mancunians played very well for their point, and should have won, so despite their league position they’re no mugs.
They’re fourth bottom, but that looks like a false position in that they’re only two points from safety with three games in hand over freefalling Farsley and four over Warrington, the sides immediately above them. They’ve picked up four points from their last two games, with a win against Farsley (which at the moment should be a given) and then a goalless draw last Saturday at Needham Market. They’ve only won three of their 12 home games though.
It might be useful for the Hereford players to run onto the pitch for this one having been hypnotised in the dressing room into believing that they’re 1-0 down. That seems to be when energy levels and a desire to cut through the opposition, rather than playing laterally in front of them, kicks in at levels that really should be there at 0-0, and when the true potential of this side is shown.
Being cagey, going behind as a result of being cagey, then belatedly demonstrating with a bit of gung-ho adventurism that you could have comfortably won the game if you hadn’t been cagey in the first place, isn’t a great advert for being cagey. Go nuts from the kick off and then use the huge number of substitutes to replace exhausted players who have been anything but cagey for an hour.
There may not be much at the moment to inspire unbridled confidence, but there’s always hope, renowned as it is for springing eternal. Everything may look brighter at 5pm on Saturday, ahead of a Tuesday trip to in-form Peterborough.
COYW