That's More Like It!

Back-to-back home games for Hereford FC then as they host newcomers Bedford Town under the fancy new lights on Tuesday evening, hot on the heels of a much-needed and thoroughly satisfying win against Alfreton on Saturday.

Bedford are the latest southern representatives to get promoted into the non-stop fun-fest that is the National League North. When they should be playing someone reliably southern like Folkestone Invicta they are instead trekking up to South (South, yeh right) Shields. That said, they’re north of Oxford, Hereford and fellow newcomers Merthyr, making the trip to South Shields more or less a local derby.

Manager Lee Bircham signed a signed a contract extension pre-season that will keep him at the club until summer 2027. The new deal comes after back-to-back promotions. He’ll do well to keep them up this season, let alone secure a hat-trick of upward mobility.

Last season Hereford dropped points against the weaker sides, something that ended up causing them to miss out on the play-offs. Something Paul Caddis will be aiming for as the Bulls’ season improves (touch wood) is not having off-days against the cannon fodder, whilst maintaining in his interactions with the media that there’s no cannon fodder in the NLN and that every game is like playing Liverpool.

If the Eagles landed in the NLN hoping that momentum from promotion would give them a rocket-boosted start as it did Merthyr, they’ve been disappointed. They’ve won just one of their six games so far and lost all their away matches. On Saturday they were beaten 1-0 at promotion fancies Fylde. They’ve now lost three on the bounce, but in fairness the last two were against South Shields and Fylde, who are both flying.

With a bit of luck those games will have softened them up nicely. Admittedly they’ve had some tough recent fixtures, but still you’d be brave to back them to avoid the drop, and on Saturday they slipped into the relegation places as Hereford climbed out of them. They'll hopefully consider this to be a third intimidating encounter on the bounce despite Hereford's lowly league position, and it'll be up to the home crowd, as well as the players repeating the high intensity of Saturday, to make it so.

QPR loanee Jack McDowell is suspended for this one but big threat Tyrone Marsh returns from his own suspension. It’s ironic that the one match they’ve managed to win this season was with nine men against Telford in which both of those players were sent off. Local lad Marsh has six goals already this season following a summer move from Boreham Wood.

The hosts go into this one hopefully full of momentum after Saturday’s cracking performance and victory against a deeply cynical Alfreton outfit.

It’s difficult to pick individuals out from a fantastic collective showing, but Kyle Howkins and Lewis Hudson in particular seemed to get an absolute battering from the Derbyshire bruisers, but jumped up each time and got back on with it. Admirable. Left-back Hudson also found himself several times in advanced central positions in what epitomised a real fluency in terms of players popping up in random places like Holland in the 70s.

Loanee Michael Parker, on the evidence of Saturday’s debut, looks like he’ll be a valuable presence over the next month in steadying the ship defensively, but also in giving a bit more urgency and forward momentum to attacking play with his ability to bring the ball out from the back.

I-Lani Edwards did everything but score on Saturday, but that goal and others will surely come very soon.

Both Hereford wins so far this season have come from performances high on energy and commitment (and some good football on Saturday). It was hoped that those levels could be maintained after Buxton, which didn’t come to pass of course with two subsequent defeats. Will a repeat of that intensity be achievable here? 

The Bulls will need exactly the same energy and commitment if they’re going to claim back-to-back wins and continue to recover from the slow start, but this won’t be as easy as the Alfreton game was to get physically motivated for. Bedford will sit deep and try to counter, and won’t prioritise tactics that get the opposition riled up, something that really backfired for Alfreton on Saturday. Instead, the hosts’ motivation will have to come from finding a way through two deepish lines of four, with the key to that challenge possibly being to just give the ball to Michael Parker and to let him ghost through all eight players.

Remaye Campbell missed Saturday with an injury but could be back in consideration for a start. Also in the pipeline is a potential loan deal for a striker, who could be available to play a part here. It’s unlikely that in-form Andy Williams will want to give up his place though after scoring two on Saturday and seemingly being as pumped up during the game as I’ve ever seen him. There’s also young prospect Adam Rooney waiting in the wings to get a long-awaited start.

Saturday’s win will hopefully ensure a 2000+ crowd for this one to give the side the backing to reach the levels they reached against Alfreton again.

Look out Bedford, the Bulls could (belatedly) be starting to charge.

PS - I've just seen Saturday's highlights and it's some chop that fools the cameraman as well as the defender. 

COYW