Muir of the same please

Hereford FC have the opportunity on Saturday to regain a bit of home form, using the FA Trophy as a springboard to improve Edgar Street performances ahead of the visit of struggling Darlington next weekend.

Brackley Town are the visitors, and the two sides will be watched only on two sides, as the Len Weston Stand will be closed given that interest in the game won’t quite be at the level of league games so far this season. It goes without saying of course that interest in the game will nevertheless be at a level most other non-League clubs would bite your hand off for.  

In what is a typically tight National League North mid-table, the Saints may be down in 18^th place but they’re only eight points off the play-offs. Their form isn’t great, having lost three of their last five. Early days still of course, but at this level they’re unaccustomed to being at the wrong end of the table.

Their ex-central defender Gareth Dean is now manager, and I can only really remember Jason Cowley rattling him as a player when the sides have met at Edgar Street previously. Having said that Jason Cowley is capable of rattling a stoned rasta. Apart from that, Dean’s trips to Hereford have largely been fruitful as a player. Hopefully that will change in his role as manager.

They lost at home to Chester last weekend 1-0 thanks to not showing up in the first half and having a man sent off in the second.      

This is a cracking opportunity away from the pressures of the league to prove that a/ there’s no Edgar street hoodoo, and b/ that the second half against Morecambe is the start of a long-term return to the form shown against South Shields and others earlier in the season, games in which the Bulls ran all over the opposition, but combined that constant pressing with high-quality passing football when in possession. That heady mix saw them top the table before it recently went missing a bit, but then returned with a vengeance for 45 minutes against Morecambe. If it can stay back for the rest of the season the play-offs beckon, at least, which represents a pretty astonishing turnaround in fortunes for the club.

Two games into captain Lewis Hudson’s comeback from injury, and he picked up at Morecambe from where he left off last season with his happy knack of scoring goals. Rich reward for the months he’s spent in rehab. Not THAT rehab. He’ll be looking to overtake Harrison Iwunze’s goal haul by Christmas.

Talking of which, no news yet on loan extensions for the Notts County youngsters, with Iwunze due back at the club on New Year’s Day and Kam Muir set to return before the end of this month. Fingers crossed that negotiations are ongoing and will deliver some good news soon.

Muir, in scoring the other goal on Tuesday, justified Aaron Downes’ decision to start him in the game, and it seems his potential could be about to explode all over the National League North if a deal can be done to keep him until at least Christmas. At Morecambe the lad showed signs he could play anywhere along the front line, and great defensive discipline to tuck back in when Hudson advanced. 

Aaron Skinner and Billy Phillips are still injury doubts, but apart from that everyone is fit.

A quick word on Aaron Downes – some very smart tactical tweaks during the midweek game turned the tide Hereford’s way. He reads everything shrewdly and reacts quickly. His keen sense of a duty of care towards his players (which in fairness was also something Paul Caddis had in spades) and the bond he’s building with fans are really starting to build the sort of momentum that can overcome the few recent bumps in the road in terms of home form.

In terms of Trophy pedigree, Brackley won it in 2018, while Hereford reached the final in 2021. If the sides are drawing after 90-odd minutes it’s straight to penalties. Fans will recall that this was what happened last season in the competition when Radcliffe were the visitors, with the poor old pitch really starting to look at that point like it was in some serious trouble. No such issues this season – cheers Jarrod.

With the Bulls still second in the league even after recent wobbles, a 90-minute showing here of energetic hounding when out of possession and free-flowing football when in possession would bode very well for an exciting remainder of the season.

COYW