Away! Hooray!

An away fixture then, whoopee, which means there will actually be a football match taking place on Tuesday night, rather than the now hauntingly familiar ‘P-P’ that follows ‘Hereford’ on the fixture list when they’re at home, as reliably as night follows day, depressing as it is for all concerned.

I don’t know whether Telford can accommodate 2,500 football-starved, rain-drenched away supporters, but presumably the absence of any recent football at Edgar Street will swell the occupation of the away end, second-bottom of the table or not.

Having opened this preview with a bit of positivity, one note of caution should be added as a women’s match was called off at the New Bucks Head on Sunday because of waterlogging, so the surface could be heavy.

A timely and transparent fans forum on Saturday provided a much-needed comms boost and conspiracy theory quashing exercise. Chairman Chris Ammonds suggested that some older and more experienced new arrivals may be on the way to complement the recent influx of youth on loan from Premier League clubs, although whether that will be in time for this game remains to be seen.

The pitch situation is now making the national media, and it was thoroughly discombobulating to suddenly hear Jamie Griffiths’ dulcet tones on BBC Radio 4’s six o’clock news as one of the main stories.

The Bucks have been flying under Kevin Wilkin, a manager who is demonstrating that he can walk the walk at this level even without the funding he got at Brackley. They’ve won seven of their last nine league games, although they unexpectedly slipped up against Worksop at the weekend, losing 3-1 in a game they actually dominated for large periods.

Telford should have won at Edgar Street earlier in the season, and could comfortably have been out of sight at half-time. Ex-Bull Jordan Cranston was somehow able to control the whole game from left back, rampaging up the line like Paolo Maldini on steroids. Alarm bells rang. Concern was expressed. It looked bad, and it has indeed proved to be bad, when multiple games not played are at least multiple games not lost.

Telford can rely on the goals of ex-Halifax striker Matty Stenson, now in his second spell at the Bucks Head. He scored 32 in the Southern League for them last season, and has 14 in 23 league games this time. He has the physique and demeanour of the archetypal NLN centre forward. I don’t mean that dismissively – Hereford don’t have that sort of player on their books, and arguably never truly have had in the HFC era.

Andy Williams has often cut a dejected figure this season, possibly realising that he’s not going to get the service he expects, whereas Stenson, who hasn’t had quite the career Willo’s had, knows the sort of service he’s going to get and makes the most of it. Having said that I seem to remember Willo gesticulating similarly when he had magicians like Ben Smith behind him.

It’s arguably a good time to attract a striker from higher up the pyramid not currently getting a game, maybe feeling like their time might be up at their current club, perhaps out of contract at the end of the season. With the unusual attraction in mid-February of a 20-odd game mini-season to go nuts with goals, get noticed in doing so, and relaunch their career, it could be tempting to give it a go. Someone like a 2026 version of The Shop. It would presumably cost somewhere not too far shy of £50k and would in no way represent long-term sustainable squad planning, but short-term emergency fixes are probably now where we’re at.

In terms of the ongoing conversations around part-time, full-time and hybrid models, nothing seems to trump running at a £1m loss each season knowing that the loss will be underwritten by an ‘investor’ whose business instincts go out of the window when the heavenly prospect of Wealdstone away next season is just one expensive 20-goal-a-season striker signing away from becoming a reality. However, Merthyr and indeed Telford are demonstrating that it’s still possible to compete with the sugar daddy clubs, so it should be possible for Hereford too, although not this season. Hopes will rest solely on staying in the division.

Cormac Daly will give the Telford defence huge cause for concern here, and has the footballing ability and brain to link up with Willo’s. It’s difficult to piece together much else to write about because everything is currently so chaotic, so if it clicks it’ll probably be more by accident than design, like a Hurricane Higgins break, but clicking could mean three points, and points are badly, badly needed; also, Hurricane Higgins breaks were always exciting.

Next time I’m going to try to make something up about Chappell Roan to make my cultural reference points a bit more contemporary than a snooker player from 50 years ago.

COYW