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The Bulls’ battle to get out of the relegation zone in National League North received another setback today, as they went down to a Macclesfield team who are battling at the other end of the table to hang on to a place in the playoffs. The scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story. Hereford played with fight and commitment to the very end, and played some very good football at times, but were up against it, having to play the whole of the second forty five minutes with ten men following a hotly disputed red card given to Harrison Sohna at the end of the first half.
Just the one change for Hereford from their defeat against Alfreton on Thursday, with D'Ath on the bench and Tustin in. The Bulls lined up with Skinner, Howkins, Quansah and Hudson in front of Theo Richardson in goal. Willcox and Tustin anchoring the midfield, Martin and Sohna further advanced to support the attack, Daly patrolling the left wing and George Munday leading the line.
Munday is a bit of a raw talent but has seemingly limitless energy. He almost created something on a couple of occasions with his willingness to chase back passes and pressure the keeper into hasty clearances. Hereford got a couple of shots in early from Martin and Willcox, and then Munday had a header saved. There wasn’t much between the two sides, the Bulls were holding their own despite being maybe 60-40 down on possession. On 29 minutes Luke Duffy’s dipping shot hit the crossbar, and there were a couple of moments when the ball was bouncing around the Hereford box, and the home side came close to scoring before the ball was scrambled away.
There was a short disruption to the play when medical attention was required for a fan on the away terraces, with the physio and a paramedic attending, but they weren’t required for long so presumably nothing too serious had happened.
Once we were back under way Macclesfield’s Heathcote received a booking for bringing down Cormac Daly. Then a minute later came the pivotal moment of the game. Sohna tangled with Duffy near the half way line, bringing him down. They both ended up on the floor, and with everyone expecting a yellow card for Sohna, the ref produced red instead. Sohna allegedly kicked out at Duffy when they were on the ground, something that the Macclesfield players, led by their captain, number 6 Dawson, did their best to impress upon the ref. When Sohna eventually trudged off the pitch Dawson appeared to put a consoling arm around his shoulders – pure hypocrisy given how hard he tried to influence the ref to send him off.
The Bulls still had a chance to open the scoring before half time. Daly cut inside trying to get a shooting chance but was forced sideways across the 18 yard line. He managed to check back and got the ball on to his left foot and curled a shot towards the top corner only to see it tipped over the bar by Ravenhill.
That was it for the first half, and the Bulls left the field with Aaron Downes having a serious problem of how to negotiate the second half a man down.
Half Time: Macclesfield 0 Hereford FC 0
There were no changes to the Hereford line up for the start of the second half, and ironically, they played some of their best football at this point. An excellent move, started with neat interpassing out of defence ended with Munday’s low angled drive being tipped round the post by Ravenhill. The Bulls kept attacking, although being a man down inevitably left them exposed to breaks on the counter and both Skinner and Hudson were forced to make excellent blocks having sprinted back to cover.
The opening goal came on 65 minutes when a corner for the Silkmen wasn’t cleared and the ball was eventually bundled home by Duffy.
Hereford stuck to their task and after a further ten minutes Downes made his first substitution, bringing on striker Lane for Howkins and going to a back three. A positive move but it was only two minutes before Hereford were exposed at the back again and Duffy scored his second with a well struck angled shot.
Hereford came back strongly and Ravenhill was forced to tip a goal bound header over the bar.
On 86 minutes Munday reduced the deficit with a fine volley, and for a brief moment a come back didn’t seem out of the question.
This feeling was soon quashed when Isaac Buckley-Ricketts cut in from the left wing, evaded a couple of ineffective tackles and scored with a crisp shot.
That was game over. Hudson and Willcox picked up late bookings but there was no more significant action.
Full Time: Macclesfield 3 Hereford FC 1
Hereford: Richardson, Skinner, Hudson, Sohna, Quansah, Munday, Daly, Martin (Williams 82), Willcox, Tustin, Howkins (Lane 76). Subs not used: Lewis, Preston, D'Ath, Donawa, James.
Macclesfield: Ravenhill, Matheson (Fensome 76), Dawson, Buckley-Ricketts (Dos Santos 90), Duffy (Stone 90+3), Heathcote (Borthwick-Jackson 46), Lacey, Gale, Osbourne, Edmondson, Popoola (Chapman 70). Subs not used: Menayese, Pasiek.
There were some good performances. Willcox is like a younger version of D’Ath, Daly’s pace and trickery always threatened to create something, and Munday deserved a goal for his tireless efforts. Quansah has had a few dodgy moments this season but generally looked pretty composed.
A lot has been said about the intense nature of Hereford’s program of fixtures. Downes has avoided using the situation as any kind of excuse, and personally I’m amazed by the fitness and resilience of the players given the limited recovery time and the fact that most of the guys presumably have to get up early in the morning to do their day jobs after a tough fixture the night before. If I was wearing a hat I’d take it off to them.
This level of fitness shows in their refusal to give up and the way they fought right to the end. This was appreciated by the travelling support who gave the players a great reception after the final whistle. The players also seemed visibly pleased with the supporters’ response – there does seem to be a bond between players and fans which was starting to look a bit strained towards the end of Paul Caddis’s time.
It was good to go back to Macclesfield after a 12 season break, it’s a nice ground and all seemed very pleasant in the spring sunshine. I was less impressed with the stewards some of whom were a tad unhelpful. One of them asked us if we were from Cardiff which was a bit baffling.
And, of course there’s always the pies. A pretty decent steak pie, maybe 7.5 out of 10, and a good strong cup of tea.
Spennymoor on Tuesday. Here’s wishing the squad a quick recovery from today’s efforts, ready to go again.
COYW
Harwood Bull