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Well it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a straightforward stroll into the play-offs does it? Typical.
Hereford FC make the relatively short trip to the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall on Tuesday evening to face struggling Rushall Olympic, needing to bank three points to consolidate their position in the play-off places.
A fortnight ago the Bulls were looking like a decent outside bet to be title winners. Things are now looking decidedly dicey again in terms of clinging on to a play-off place following a solitary point from their last two games, and another meek capitulation at home to a club from the northeast on Saturday. Curzon in eighth place are now just two points behind with a whopping three games in hand.
There will be less pressure here than there was on Saturday, when yet again a few hundred extra part-time fans showed up only to see a flat performance from the hosts, a performance unlikely to encourage them to sign up to become season ticket holders next season. The crowd for this one will be not much more than a tenth the size of Saturday’s, half of whom will be following the away side, but another plastic pitch offers its own challenges. That said, it was only a handful of Tuesdays ago that the Bulls had to contend with a bog at Needham Market, so the familiarity of a surface similar to that which is used twice a week for training should be preferable.
Rushall are having a tough time. As one of the smaller clubs in the division they’re finding it harder to sustain the momentum they had last year, their first year at this level. When Hereford hosted them in November, the visitors were bottom. Four months on and progress has been made – they’re now second bottom. It has to be said that this is largely due to Farsley’s season totally disintegrating on and off the pitch, rather than to the Pics launching a late spirited fight for survival. They look like relegation certainties along with Farsley, and there’s nothing in their recent form to suggest that they’ve got what it takes to escape the drop.
This would appear, therefore, to be a golden opportunity for Hereford to get back to winning ways and push back up into the heart of the play-off places rather than hanging on hoping to grab seventh place at the end of the season. With nine games left, five will ideally need to be won. It's imperitive therefore to win this and the Farsley game at the end of the month. It would also be good to win both in style to push the goal difference figure up past Curzon’s +19 and Buxton’s +17 for added insurance, but I’m sure most people would take a pair of 1-0 victories!
Rushall have lost six of their last ten games, and have won only once during that time. Since the new year they’ve conceded seven against Spennymoor, six against Brackley, five against Buxton and four against Chester. Last season they lost both games to Hereford 1-0, but were a little unlucky to do so. This season that game in November at Edgar Street ended 3-0 to the hosts.
Jaden Charles, son of former England international Gary Charles, was briefly with Hereford for a month in 2021. He’s nominally a left back so it says it all about the sort of season Rushall are enduring that he’s one of their top scorers with two goals. He can also swing a sweet left peg in dead-ball situations.
Ex-Bulls captain Nathan Cameron has been a near ever-present for them this season, and fellow ex-Bull Paul White has had the unenviable task of keeping goal for them.
For the visitors, club captain Lewis Hudson could return to the side to face his old club here to shore up some of the defensive leakiness that contributed to Darlington’s goals on Saturday.
Tate Campbell missed the Rushall game earlier in the season through suspension, but may be another to be recalled here if Paul Caddis considers a bit of a freshening up of the starting XI to be in order. Given the opposition’s propensity to concede goals, could two out-and-out strikers be an option? It’s easy to envisage how either Jason Cowley or Andy Williams could profit from the opportunities that arise from Remaye Campbell’s presence and knock-downs.
Sammy Robinson will possibly be out for the rest of the season and his absence is being sorely felt. Without him sweeping up in a deep midfield position, that perhaps lends more weight to going with a 4-4-2 formation here.
The last time Hereford lost 2-0 at home to a side from the northeast they went on to win their next five games. A repeat of that will be enough for an elongated season.
I’ll finish off by writing precisely what I wrote to conclude the preview to that home game against Rushall in November, hoping that the outcome is the same: three points is an absolute must. COME ON HEREFORD!
COYW