A partial reboot

So the Paul Caddis era is over, and it’s a shame that he’ll inevitably be remembered more for his third season than his first two, but that’s football management for you. Hopefully he’ll be off somewhere nice with his family at half term, no longer enduring sleepless nights worrying about the strengths and weaknesses of Marine’s left back and suchlike. A characteristically classy statement from him too upon departure. A good man.

Unusually, his assistant Adam Rooney has stayed on in an attempt to…I was going to say steady the ship, but actually he needs to do more than that from the get-go in turning the ship around and getting it travelling at speed towards the lovely safe island of 17^th place. A tall order, but absolutely everyone with a place in their heart for Hereford FC will be backing the interim manager to succeed, even those who would have liked a completely fresh start.

The Bulls have a trip to the seaside to look forward to this weekend, as they look to pick up urgently needed points in a huge game at fellow strugglers Southport.

This feels like the first truly big, real and edgy relegation ‘six-pointer’, and as such is by far the biggest game of the season so far. A Hereford win would leave them six points behind Southport, and safety, with seven games in hand – something that offers a realistic escape route. A Southport win would leave Hereford twelve points behind, with those seven games to be played in a short space of time, and possibly in a variety of locations, to try to bridge the gap. There hasn’t even been a mini-spell of form this season where the Bulls have managed a points-per-game average equating to twelve points from seven games.

The latter situation would start to make relegation look a little more odds-on than odds-against, albeit with a gigantic 21 games still to play and therefore plenty of time to get some emergency recruitment finalised. Those 21 games afford opportunities for that emergency recruitment to make an impact on the pitch, and to suddenly make 12 points in seven games perfectly possible, which it doesn’t look to be with the squad as it stands.

Historically the Haig Avenue pitch hasn’t always been a manicured bowling green, but last Saturday their home game with Darlington went ahead, and therefore this one should be safe, especially as Merseyside will be missing the heavy rain forecast for Herefordshire on Friday, which as I type is actually falling as snow in my far-flung corner of the county. Makes a change from rain – lovely variety to the wetness.

The Sandgrounders drew that game with Darlington 2-2 with a late equaliser, but on Tuesday they got thumped 4-2 at Chorley, with the latter looking like they might be starting to make their traditional charge into the play-offs under Andy Preece, Evesham-born local lad Andy Preece – just saying, like.

They draw at home. A lot. They draw at home more than anyone. In fact they’ve only lost four of 15 home games this season which is surprising given their league position. Given that record, they’ll have held better sides than this season’s Hereford FC to draws. I'm not sure how much use a draw would be to Hereford either.

Attacking midfielder Sonny Hilton would have been the player the Bulls most needed to keep an eye on but he hasn’t played since mid-January, presumably because of injury. A good omen perhaps, although they’ve won without him recently.

Their form is pretty random, but they’ve recently beaten Merthyr in the league and Fylde in the Trophy, although Merthyr look to have gone a bit wonky following the departure of Ricardo Rees.

There were no new signings before the meek midweek loss at Telford that cost the honourable Hereford manager his job, and nothing’s been announced on that front since, perhaps unsurprisingly given the pitch and sacking situations. Both of those situations are understandably seismic in terms of club priorities, but so is the recruitment of new players who can come in and make an immediate difference, players who will therefore be expensive. The kids who have recently come in on loan can and will contribute along the way, but they can’t be expected to carry the team. Outlay will need to be outlaid.

The games will be coming thick and fast of course now that the super-turf has been put down, although it’s not so super to have allowed the next home game to be played at home. That will be at Worcester on Tuesday evening against Darlington, and then Saturday will be Scarborough in the morning and Chester in the afternoon. OK, maybe not quite, but not far off.

Head says 1-1, heart says 0-10. Heart is an idiot, even on Valentines' weekend. 

Good luck Adam.

COYW