No Alarms And No Surprises

It’s a match-up on Saturday between two of the sides who really put the ‘South’ into ‘National League North’. Hereford FC visit Oxford City in the latest instalment of the Bulls’ increasingly nerve-jangling quest to scrape into the play-offs at the end of the season.

Oxfordian beat combo Radiohead sang of no alarms and no surprises – Bulls supporters, and there should be a good number at the game, will be hoping for some of that from 3pm until the final whistle.

Jason Cowley’s second goal of the season could prove to be huge in a few weeks’ time. Salvaging a point from last Saturday’s game against Chester could be crucial as the sides vying to finish seventh queue up behind Hereford, waiting to pounce on any slip-ups.

In terms of those rivals for seventh place, Kings Lynn and Buxton are still behind the Bulls but both irritatingly still have a three-point gimme game each against Farsley to come. Northeastern gatecrashers Spennymoor and Darlington have arrived late on the play-off premises, although the former have the FA Trophy final to distract them and the latter will need to win all of their remaining games.

It would be fair to say that Oxford haven’t enjoyed their season in the National League North following relegation last time, but they have, conveniently, achieved safety and ensured that they’ll have another crack at it next season, just in time for Hereford’s visit this weekend. With nothing whatsoever to play for, against visitors with an awful lot to play for, they’ll hopefully relax enough to make this a little easier than it would have been if they’d needed to win.

Their seasonal start was atrocious as they were rudely alerted to the fact that this season wasn’t going to be any sort of chummy picnic with Chippenham, Weston-super-Mare or some other southern softy. Since then they haven’t picked up spectacularly, but have done enough to comfortably avoid back-to-back relegations. They’ve done that by winning four of their last six games. They can now have a rest, and will ideally run onto the pitch in flip-flops, sipping cocktails.

Energetic and talented young midfielder Tom Scott is one to watch, and their top scorer is Zac McEachran with ten goals; he’s a player who impressed for them when these clubs last locked horns at the MGroup Stadium back in 2017, which ended with a win for the Bulls.

They’re another club with a plastic pitch who seem to derive no on-field benefit from it, as their away record is identical to their home one.

The Bulls will be well aware ahead of this game that in November Oxford came to Edgar Street and won 2-0 with two late goals following a first half early bath for Alex Babos.

Revenge would be sweet, and would also ensure that the club goes into the last three games in seventh spot, unless Kings Lynn go really bonkers at Farsley and win 15-0. Unfortunately that’s not as far-fetched a notion as it ought to be.

Kyle Howkins, my player of the season unless someone scores 30 goals in the last four games, should be back for this one. His illness and resultant absence last weekend could have cost the Bulls a win, but his presence in this one could ensure one.

With Alex Babos so adept against Curzon Aston recently at picking up the knock-downs from Remaye Campbell and making something of them, it was surprising to see him start on the bench against Chester. Perhaps he’ll be back in the starting XI here, giving Campbell more encouragement to fight for everything knowing that he’s not doing it in a vacuum, and that he might be able to get on the end of something Babos creates as a result of Remaye’s grappling with the Oxford centre backs.

With Leamington, a club like Oxford with nothing left to play for, coming to Edgar Street next weekend, the Bulls will be looking to bank maximum points from the next two games before the final two against Kidderminster and Scunthorpe, both of whom could need to beat the Bulls to win the title. And if that’s the case would nerves from the title contenders favour the Bulls? Is this paragraph a watertight case for Hereford winning all of their remaining matches?

Perhaps more realistically than four wins, Hereford’s current three-game unbeaten run will have to become a seven-game unbeaten run, with two wins and two draws needed as a minimum to cling on to seventh place, but that clutch of other clubs queuing up to steal it will have to do something even better.

It’s Game 101 for Paul Caddis as Bulls boss, an admirable and universally respected head honcho of our club. His appointment has been a force for good in attempting to realise the expectations of supporters in thinking that this division isn’t one the club should be spending too much longer in, and believing that momentum and support in numbers can overcome the limitations of a reportedly relatively paltry playing budget.

Unlike Orwell’s Room 101, Caddis’s Game 101 will be a happy place, with one of these sides desperate to win and the other winding down for summer, but as a result nerve-endings will continue to twitch horribly for another couple of  weeks. We love it really, right?

COYW