Wembley – the more realistic route

Ignominious defeat at home to Hemel Hempstead put paid to Hereford FC’s chances of a Wembley appearance in the FA Cup Final this season, but Saturday sees them embark on a more realistic route to the home of English football – the FA Trophy.

AFC Sudbury are the hosts as the Bulls enter the competition at the second round stage, which means a trek down to Suffolk, and a highly meaningful trip for one Hereford supporter, with the Kings Marsh Stadium being the 250^th away ground he’s visited. He could claim that it’s also the 251^st as it seems to be called the Elite Travel Stadium too.

If you’re planning to make the trip as a dog owner (you didn’t expect me to say that did you?), one unusual feature of the stadium is that canines are allowed in if they’re on a lead, although the club makes it clear that they’re NOT allowed in the clubhouse, even if they’re over 18 (it doesn’t say that last bit). If it’s 1-0 to Hereford in the final minute and Sudbury are clean through on goal you may, if you’ve brought your dog with you, consider staging some sort of fake lead malfunction and encourage your pet to join the action, although I imagine the FA would take as dim a view of that as they do about flares (the pyrotechnics rather than the trousers).

Sudbury play in the Southern League Premier, one level below the Bulls, and like Hereford are having a fairly torrid season. They sit third bottom, already some way short of the safety zone, and a long way behind Worcester, who are also in that division.

The club was formed in 1999 as the result of a merger between Sudbury Town and Sudbury Wanderers. They play on plastic, and this is the furthest they’ve ever got in the competition, which seems a bit unfair given that Hereford haven’t even started in it yet.

Interim manager Tom Austin was appointed recently as the club looked to force a change in its fortunes, but he hasn’t as yet managed to turn things around.

Hereford, unlike Sudbury, have wisely, to my mind, kept faith in their manager in trying to weather the current storm of poor form. Tuesday’s actual stormy weather meant that the players had the week off, with the Macclesfield game sensibly postponed nice and early. That weather was probably a stroke of luck following consecutive defeats to the National League North’s bottom two clubs.

As the debate continues about what is realistically achievable using the current HFC model, football’s financial landscape increasingly evolves to resemble Munch’s The Scream, with Eastleigh reportedly paying players £2000+ a week. Carlisle, Southend…OK, not quite as surprising although still nuts, but Eastleigh?! This is all of course filtering down a level and is bound to put a dent in Hereford’s competitiveness, but nevertheless there does seem to be some scope for improvement to at least compete with teams with similar budgets and part-time statuses.

With Storm Claudia currently giving Herefordshire an absolute drenching, the easterly location and plastic pitch for this game should combine to ensure that it goes ahead.

As ever I’m completely clueless when it comes to suspension rules and regs (I’m much stronger on where you can take your dog), so I’m not entirely sure whether Matt Preston is able to use this match to serve his one-match ban or whether it has to be a league game, but I suppose it’s a possibility and would be quite handy.

Not a great deal has been seen of the lesser-spotted Madou Cisse so far this season, but if he’s anywhere near match fit perhaps he could play some part here.

This is a good opportunity for the players to keep a clean sheet, score a few goals (Worcester put six past Sudbury when they made the same trip to Suffolk earlier this month) and to give their manager something cheery to talk about after the game for a change. If a clean sheet proves unattainable, can Hereford at least actually take the lead in this one? It would make a nice change.

That said, this will be no picnic, and Paul Caddis will make that clear both to his players and to fans in his media comments pre-match. Also, an early exit from this competition would make it increasingly difficult to paint recent results as merely a temporary blip.

If these sides are drawing at the final whistle it’s straight to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, and regardless of the outcome of that shoot-out, if the sides are drawing at the final whistle there’s little hope of Paul Caddis being cheery after the game. £3,750 goes to the winners here.

A golden opportunity then to get a much-needed win after six games without success, before another long trip to Scarborough next weekend to face a Seadogs side who alternate between phases of winning every week and losing every week.

Don’t forget to bring your dog.

COYW