Port in a storm

Hereford host bottom club Southport on Saturday at a time that finds the Bulls in somewhat stormy waters form-wise, following a midweek 3-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Oxford, a loss that leaves the Bulls just four points off the bottom of the table.

Hereford were bossing, or at least well in, that game before Matt Preston’s sending off on the stroke of half-time, and if you look at that starting 11 against Oxford it looks strong. It’s absolutely not a relegation side on paper. On grass it seems to be a different story, at least at the moment.

I don’t think anyone has a problem with whether it’s one up front or two up front, it’s more that when there’s one up front that one needs players running on around him in support in a fluid way, exactly like what other sides do against Hereford. That doesn’t seem to happen

Furthermore, Hereford are getting outplayed by very nice passing football. It’s no longer a case of smaller clubs coming and getting 1-0 wins with an early lucky long punt and a ricochet, followed by 70 minutes of tactical fouling and lying down. The opposition have just been better than Hereford, sometimes much better. I don’t know whether it’s the complacency of being a big club (see also struggling Chester), the inability of some players to be able to play in front of a crowd or what, and I think the manager has similarly said, very honestly, that he doesn’t know either.

The summer seemed like a distracted one, certainly in terms of the programme of friendlies that was put together, which was underwhelming, and that doesn’t seem to have helped, certainly in terms of the opening abject, directionless defeat to Kings Lynn and the subsequent similar loss to Chorley, which went a long way beyond being not good enough. Since then there’s been a lot more fight, but it’s fighting in the face of getting outplayed by the likes of Telford and Curzon Ashton. Those sides aren’t propped up by a money person, those sides aren’t full-time, it’s very much a level playing field against them, although actually it isn’t. The revenue that HFC generates is way beyond the Nash, and double what Telford generate.

I really like Paul Caddis, and he wouldn’t have been solely or perhaps even partially responsible for putting together that pre-season programme. That shouldn’t be on him. I fully believe that he cares passionately about the club, metaphorically kicks every ball, and probably suffers more than anyone on a Saturday night at the moment. It must be a lonely place. It’s a big club at which to start your managerial career. I hope he can persevere, say to himself and his players ‘this is the worst it’s going to get’ and move upwards from (hopefully) a win here.

It’s almost certainly just coincidental that Hereford and Chester happen to be having bad seasons, but can those clubs, with gate receipts that dwarf many other clubs’ revenues higher up the table, honestly say that every last possible penny goes on the playing budget, and that the non-playing side is absolutely as lean and mean as it can be? Would you prefer a stronger squad or a stronger social media presence?

Having said all of the above, back-to-back wins here and against Macclesfield on Tuesday, again at home, will settle things down a bit. I’m very much aware that I said something similar about the Oxford and Southport games though prior to getting thumped 3-0.

Something else that will lift the mood is the announcement of the new long-term lease, and hints dropped about an imminent change to the club’s playing model, presumably the adoption of a hybrid approach. With the recent loss of parking at one end of the ground, the path may now be clear to build an admittedly quite narrow multi-storey car park at the Blackfriars End with views out to the pitch so that people can pay to watch the game from the comfort of their own cars.

Southport beat in-form Buxton in midweek at Buxton, which would have messed up a lot of people’s accumulators, but generally they’re bottom of the table for a reason. There probably aren’t any sides left who can be played at home with any degree of confidence, but this is as close as it gets.

Lawson Dath’s return from injury offers reassurance if he can pick up from where he left off before that injury. His absence could partly explain why Telford and Curzon Ashton in the last two home games swept through the Hereford midfield with ease; if Dath Vader is in the starting XI that will hopefully not be the case to the same extent. He’ll pick up a needless yellow card, of course he will, but if he didn’t you’d wonder if he’d lost his mojo. May the force be with him.

3-0 at half-time the right way would be nice with no red cards, as long as it doesn’t end 3-3. If the crowd holds up at 2,500 that alone sends a message to the board, the management and the players that we may be critical (of course we are given how the season’s started) but we’re still behind the players in numbers that are laughably ridiculous for this level.

COYW