Back on track at Macc?

It’s up to Cheshire for Hereford FC this Saturday and the plastic pitch of Moss Rose, Macclesfield, in a top-of-the-table clash sure to attract a big and vocal away following. That plastic pitch could be something of a blessing given a forecast of torrential rain coupled with 40mph gusts of wind. The weather may dictate that this will be attritional rather than beautiful, although of course an attritional 0-1 outcome would be as beautiful as a sunset over the Black Mountains.

The Bulls were well in the game when these two met at the home of the Silkmen last time, before Harrison Sohna was sent off for what didn’t seem to be a red card offence until Macclesfield captain Paul Dawson intervened with some imposing histrionics that influenced the referee.

Dawson has missed most of this season with a troublesome hernia, and if he’s missing here the hosts will be weakened but the game itself will be strengthened in terms of the chances of it being played in a sportsmanlike way. That hernia is quite obviously down to the ‘Meadow End celebrator’ curse from last season – the player arguably won the keenly contested ‘most idiotically it’s-all-about-me Meadow End celebrator of the season award’ – a questionable example set to the younger members of the side he captains.

Two weeks ago Macc hosted South Shields in a battle of the two big fancies to top the division at the end of the season. They came back from being behind in that one to win 4-3, which is all very well but it’s hardly 6-0.

They’ve had their hands full with Anstey Nomads in the Cup over the last week. Held to a draw at home, they scored three goals in quarter of an hour in the second half in the replay on Tuesday, as they look to go as deep into the competition as they did last season with their history-making win against Crystal Palace.

Goalie Christian Dibble is now, thanks to the not-before-time new timewasting rules, able to simply concentrate on being a very good goalkeeper, which he is. Midfielder Luke Duffy is one of the best players in the division, simple as that - he should be playing at a higher level. Ex-Scunthorpe striker Danny Elliott has five league goals from ten games this season after getting 11 in 20 last season. Wide man Jon Ustabasi has been a thorn in the side of the Bulls in previous seasons, and will be one to watch again here. Left back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson sounds like he might have been head boy at the sort of school I didn’t go to.

Basically they have quality footballers all over the pitch.

Given the interruptions to Hereford’s season recently it’s difficult to know whether the 1-0 loss to Hednesford or the 6-0 thrashing of South Shields is most representative of how competitive this Bulls side will be this season. A trip to many people’s idea of the strongest side in the division should give a few clues as the side start to play games regularly again.

Something that was conspicuously successful against South Shields and conspicuously absent against Hednesford was the constant energetic pressing of the opponents. Admittedly that absence was partly due to Hednesford cleverly setting up to boot the ball forward quickly. Macclesfield will attempt to play more football and expect to have more possession, so there may be more of an opportunity for the Bulls to press like dervishes and force mistakes.

Edgar Street hosted a derby last weekend as Hereford FC faced local rivals Hereford FC in what ended up being something of an incestuous behind-closed-doors encounter. Aaron Downes seemed content with the work out, and thankfully the players didn’t seem to inflict any injuries on one another in what was reportedly a fairly full-on 70 minutes.

In fact, as frustrating as the last few weeks have been in their stop-start nature, one good thing to emerge from it is that the squad, bar club captain Lewis Hudson, is now entirely injury free as the Bulls go into a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday run of games starting with this one.

If the players of whom little has been seen so far perform as well as the rest of the squad generally has since August, it’s tempting to think that a top three place in the table can be retained for a good while yet. Joe Willis, Fin Homes and Kameron Muir all look like they could contribute significantly to a pre-Christmas points haul that will keep the Bulls in the promotion conversation at least.

It’s also surely only a matter of time before Harry Tustin opens his goalscoring account for 2026/27. He’s now fully fit after sustaining an injury playing for his little side hustle, Cheltenham Town.

Someone else who’s due a goal, given that he hasn’t scored now for a whole match, is Harrison Iwunze, whose impressive chance-to-goal conversion rate means that he’ll almost certainly get one here. The striker has two more months of his loan spell at Edgar Street left, and what a boost it would be if that spell could be extended to become a season-long arrangement. I’ve found myself taking an unusually keen interest in Notts County’s results recently, hoping that they can pull away from the League 1 relegation zone and therefore not be tempted to make any hasty loan player recalls.

Huge game this, then a local derby against Telford followed by the return of Paul Caddis next Saturday. Big week.

COYW