On the road...again

Hereford FC are back on their travels on Tuesday with this rearranged trip to Bridlington, with the first attempt weathered off in November.

The reversal of Saturday’s home fixture with Peterborough came as a result of the Edgar Street pitch continuing to be nursed back to health, hopefully at least in time for the bumper Boxing Day payday against Kidderminster, and everyone connected with the club will be praying for dry weather between now and then. If that game’s postponed, the cause of the bogginess, whatever it is, will start to become very expensive.

This is the Seadogs’ fourth season in the NLN, although it’s a challenging one for them following a sky-high quote for a plastic pitch replacement at the Flamingo Land Stadium, which has left them playing home games this season twenty miles down the coast at Bridlington.

Echoes here of Farsley’s implosion last season, so fingers crossed that they can get it sorted as quickly as possible, given that Celtic ended up getting dumped in step 5 as a result of their own plastic pitch issues.

I suggested pre-season that the pitch situation might make Scarborough outside bets for relegation, but they started superbly and were in the top three for a while. Not unusually my Mystic Meg powers weren’t much cop, although in my defence I did also suggest that Radcliffe could be dark horses. That prediction’s proving to be a bit more reliable, and they’ll be tough opponents in the next round of the Trophy on Saturday, which will be played who-knows-where, maybe Pegasus, who will presumably soon be announcing that they’re going full time, along with my son’s Monday night six-a-side team.

Scarborough have now slipped a tiny bit but still occupy a play-off position. They beat Fylde and a flying Merthyr earlier in the season, and their record as tenants at Bridlington’s Mounting Systems Stadium (how boring is that name compared to the Flamingo Land Stadium?), is very good. They’ve won six of nine games there and conceded fewer goals at home than anyone else in the league apart from South Shields.

Having said that, on Saturday they needed a 95^th-minute penalty to rescue a point in a 2-2 draw at home against Bedford.

They’re typically a good-to-watch passing team. Luca Colville, Alex Purver and Harry Green have all shown themselves to be smart and creative midfielders against Hereford before. Dom Tear always weighs in with goals, but the big success story for them this season has been ex-Middlesbrough youngster Stephen Walker, who joined in February from Whitby. He has nine goals in 14 league games.

As for the visitors, Gus Mafuta got off the mark for the season with a fabulously taken goal on Saturday at Peterborough – could he now be starting to exert a bit more authority and influence on games ahead of a fully fit and flying remainder of the season? Actually I can’t imagine him ever 'flying' as such, maybe just steadily doing what he does to great effect.

Jaiden White and I-Lani Edwards coming on as subs with quarter of an hour left at the weekend hints at a bit of depth now on the bench for Paul Caddis. With a bunch of away trips and a busy Christmas programme coming up, that depth will be needed. To demonstrate what an irritant he can be to defenders with tired legs, the Villa loanee grabbed the Bulls second goal which should do wonders for his confidence. 

Just as important, especially given how the season has gone so far, was the clean sheet, against a side that had been scoring freely at home. Credit here to Keenan Quansah who partnered Kyle Howkins in the middle of the defence (the latter will be delighted that the opposition failed to score on his 100^th appearance for Hereford). Quansah has been peripheral this season, but his mobility has always looked like an asset in a defence that has been exposed for its lack of pace this season. Hopefully he can join Mafuta in kicking on and cementing a place in the starting line-up.

Callum McFarlane could start as the lone striker here given that Rem Campbell is injured and Andy Williams played 90 minutes on Saturday, with Harley Hamilton lurking just off him. Having said that Willo’s looking increasingly like he wants to join the hat-trick party, and is getting closer to doing so.

Lawson D'Ath comes back into contention for this following his suspension on Saturday, which came about as a result of his fondness for finding a way into the ref’s book. If Lord Vader and Big Gus both start it would definitely suggest just one up top, but it could be that Paul Caddis doesn’t want to meddle with a winning formula, and D'Ath will come on for Mafuta with half an hour left.  

The Bulls go into the game three games unbeaten, giving a mini-platform from which to fire up the rocket boosters and shoot away from the foot of the table.

Back-to-back league wins for the first time this season would further lift the autumn/winter gloom that’s obstinately hung around the club lately, like the puddles on the Edgar Street pitch - it was absolutely brilliant to hear the manager sounding more upbeat after the game on Saturday. He deserved that.

COYW