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Hereford FC are back on the road again on Saturday after an intensive block of three (winning) home games in eight days. Crosby, Merseyside is the destination – specifically the Marine Travel Arena, home of Marine FC.
The hosts boast, if that’s the right word, a plastic pitch. As usual it has been described in various quarters as being both 3G and 4G. Whether the number of G it is has any relevance I don’t know. I understand that it’s considered to be one of the ‘better’ plastic pitches though, although again I have no idea what constitutes ‘better’. Having demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of (and, it must be said, interest in) plastic pitches, I’ll quickly move on, apart from to say that Marine’s home record is no great shakes so they don’t seem to gain an advantage from it, and Hereford have, I think, a 100% record on plastic so far this season. Yes, OK, one match.
Marine washed up in the National League North this season having upset the odds in beating Macclesfield in the Northern Premier play-offs last season, and as a result of that upset the latter aren’t bothering with the play-offs this time around in looking to win the league in March.
The Mariners are a club who have taken a bit of a punt this season on young arrivals from lower down the pyramid. This approach, no doubt driven by financial necessity, has seen them struggle all season at the wrong end of the table, but they’re fighting for their lives with four wins in their last five games lifting them out of the drop zone, and a fifth bottom finish would undoubtedly see champagne corks popping in the Marine boardroom.
They recently took three points off Kidderminster at home, although given the current state of relations between manager and players at our near neighbours that may not be headline news. More impressively, perhaps, they held Harriers to a 0-0 draw at Aggborough at a time when the Harriers dressing room wasn’t a place of bafflingly deep discord. They’ve also beaten Chorley 3-0 at home.
Striker Enock Lusiama arrived from Halesowen in September, and has since scored six in 21 games. Defensive midfielder Sam Fielding joined the club from Farsley earlier in the week, offering further worrying evidence that Celtic are in big trouble. Fingers crossed that they can see out the rest of the season and regroup in the summer, although relegation, and possibly finishing on the same number of points that they’ve got now, look likely and possible respectively.
As reported by Bulls News yesterday, the club has lost three players this week. At the time of writing this preview, replacements have yet to be announced. The chances of the club borrowing Van Dijk, Salah and Robertson from their near neighbours are, I’d say, slim though.
Despite a handful of good results this season, Marine looked very one-dimensional at Edgar Street in November when getting stuffed 4-0. On that basis this looks like a very good opportunity for Hereford to revert, after that recent successful splurge of home matches, to full potent counterattacking mode, an approach that has delivered the goods throughout the season away from home. The Bulls’ away record is only bettered this season by Curzon Ashton, who are freakishly good on their travels (something to be mindful of on 22 March).
I thought that the first 15 minutes of the second half on Tuesday saw the Bulls produce a level of confidence, fluency and togetherness that I haven’t seen before from the phoenix club in the National League North. There’s no reason why that can’t be carried into this game too, and if it is the hosts will find it hard to live with.
Sammy Robinson was instrumental in a lot of that fluency, but will probably be missing here through injury prior to serving a two-match ban. For the second time this season he has very cleverly combined suspension and injury so that they occur largely at the same time. He’s a smart cookie. Tate Campbell will hopefully be fit enough to replace Robinson, although a tight groin saw him sit out the Buxton game. Other options would include moving Aaron Skinner into midfield, or starting Declan McGlynn or DJ Campton-Sturridge.
Up front, Temaye Campbell is officially on fire, with three goals in his first four games for the club, Jaiden White is trying things that weren’t coming off in January and now suddenly are, and Yusifu Ceesay is in the sort of form that makes him occasionally unplayable.
At the back, Theo Richardson, reflecting the growing confidence in the team, now seems to be passing to the opposition to allow himself to then make worldy saves in recovering situations created by himself, which is very impressive but wasn’t great for my heart on Tuesday night. He does seem to be very good at more conventional goalkeeping too though.
In fairness, the team was never as bad as their January results might have suggested, and probably isn’t as good as the February results are suggesting either, so with this match seeing us into a new month, will March bring another change in fortunes? Nah, winning feels too nice for that.
COYW