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Hereford have picked up another vital three points after beating Marine 1-0 on Wednesday evening.
Mikey Lane's goal after just seven minutes gave the visitors the lead and despite Marine pressure after the break, held on for the second win on the bounce.
The result sees Hereford move above Alfreton on goal difference, and are now four points from safety with two games in hand.
Full report and reaction to follow.
Hereford are 1-0 up at half time in this evening’s National League North match against Marine. Mikey Lane’s goal after seven minutes is what separates the sides at the break, though Hereford are deservedly ahead.
There is one National North League fixture this evening.
And for Hereford FC it's a very important one in their fight to remain in the league.
Marine v Hereford
A selection of pictures from Edgar Street yesterday. These include supporters celebrating Hereford's goals and also players and supporters after the end of the game.
Some pictures from the second half of yesterday's game at Edgar Street.
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| What Did The Merthyr Manager Say? |
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| Remaye Campbell Scored For Hereford In Last Season's Fixture |
A Wednesday evening fixture for Hereford this week, unusual in itself. They are away at Marine for another catch-up fixture.
And despite their 3-0 win over Merthyr at Edgar Street yesterday, the bookies have priced a Hereford victory at 31/10.
Marine defeated Chorley (15th) last Monday.
Hereford are still fighting for their lives. Currently they are in 22nd place in the National North League with 41 points from 40 games.
Marine are 12th with 58 points also from 40 games.
As regards goal difference Marine's is -6, Hereford's is -18.
Interestingly Marine have only scored 54 goals this season, Hereford have scored 53.
Recent form:
Hereford LLLLLW
Marine WDWLLW
Marine 3/4 Draw 11/4 Hereford 31/10
Aaron Downes has warned Hereford their job is far from finished – despite a vital 3-0 win over Merthyr Town boosting hopes of a great escape.
Hereford celebrates Preston's goal on Monday
The Bulls produced one of their most complete performances of the season in front of 3,080 home fans at Edgar Street, ending a run of seven straight defeats and ensuring they did not lose further ground on the teams above them.
But Downes quickly shifted focus to what comes next.
“What we can’t do is go 'okay, that's great, we've won against Merthyr and that's our season done' - no,” he said.
"I've challenged the players again to say 'well done, enjoy it, it's a relief and we've stopped the rot', but it's important that we go again – and then again.
"Then that gives us a great chance. Some teams have only got three games left in the season, we've got six, we've got to make that count."
With six games remaining – more than their relegation rivals – Hereford still have an opportunity to claw their way clear, starting with a trip to Marine tomorrow (Wednesday).
“We’ve given ourselves a fighter’s chance to keep carrying our season on and we'll go up on Wednesday again,” Downes added.
"They're saying the right things in the changing room, it's a good group of boys and I'm lucky I've got them. We've got six games to go, we go up to Marine and hopefully take this momentum and belief into the game.
"If we show the same fight and spirits and that bit of quality that we showed today, then we've every chance of beating anyone on our day. We've proved that this season."
Hereford defender Matt Preston has been included in the National North League team of the week.
He scored Hereford's third goal against Merthyr yesterday and also helped to keep a clean sheet.
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So the Easter weekend provided a rollercoaster of emotions, with heartbreak at Kidderminster and elation against Merthyr, which at least made a change from unremitting misery.
Now that the elation has worn off a bit, eroded slightly perhaps by the irritation that most of the other strugglers also won on Easter Monday, the scale of the task in front of the Bulls over the next two-and-a-half weeks comes back into sharp focus.
That task continues on Wednesday as Hereford travel to Merseyside for a plastic-pitch encounter with Crosby’s Marine FC.
They really must win this before two huge six-pointers against Bedford and Oxford. Having lost seven in a row, winning the last seven to round off the season would be quite a stylish way to get out of the hole they’re in. As unlikely as that winning run sounds, unfortunately they’ll only get out of that hole if they do that or something not far off it. 51ish was, not so long ago, looking like a points total that could be enough. It no longer does, with Bedford and Oxford both making bold moves towards safety. One tiny chink of light is the late arrival to the relegation party of Curzon Ashton. If the Bulls can win this game, the only National League North game being played in midweek, they’re four points behind the Nash having played two games fewer. All they can do is keep winning football matches.
Marine had an excellent start to the season and spent a long time in the play-off positions. They’ve slipped to mid-table now, partly due to going very deep in the FA Trophy, losing in the semi-finals. Despite winning on Monday, 2-1 at home to Chorley, and like Hereford having games in hand, they’re unlikely to claw their way back into those play-off positions by the end of the season. That’s something Hereford have to use to their advantage.
They took a while to acclimatise to the National League North last season following promotion, and looked way off it at Edgar Street in terms of quality (not much) and naivity (loads), but quickly turned things around and finished 19 points clear of the drop in losing just two of their last ten games. There’s very little chance of them exhibiting any of that naivity here having really kicked on since then, while Hereford have very much gone backwards over the course of the season as a whole.
Bobby Grant is their manager, and is something of a ‘Mr Marine’ having also played for and captained the club.
Their big threat is left winger Fin Sinclair-Smith, who scored at the weekend to take his seasonal tally to ten. Joseph James will hopefully have recovered from the knock he picked up on Monday to enable him to look after the ex-Radcliffe man. Centre forward George Newell seems to have inherited some of his father Mike’s attributes as a typical English centre forward and target man, but has only managed six goals.
Aaron Downes can’t afford to be cagey, and will presumably go again with George Munday and Mikey Lane up front. The latter suggested when interviewed following his man-of-the-match display on Monday that a repeat of the first half against Merthyr could ‘blow Marine out of the water’. I might ask him to start writing the titles for these previews.
Freddy Willcox and Harrison Sohna should again occupy the central midfield positions, offering plenty in the middle of the park with skillsets that complement each other very well.
Behind them, Kyle Howkins and Matt Preston will be keen to oversee another clean sheet here as the Hereford defence is finally showing signs of organised resistance, as well as silky finishing at the other end.
The Merthyr manager said after Monday’s match:
"They were physically bigger, stronger in winning duels in that first half. They ran all over us, which is really disappointing to see."
This is precisely what’s happened to Hereford again and again this season. Telford have done it, Kings Lynn have done it, Chorley have done it…and that’s just a handful of examples of how the team has been absolutely bullied at home, let alone away. And that deliberately ignores the better-funded sides who have ‘run all over us’ (I was going to say ‘bigger clubs’ but they're absolutely not). It’s been awful, but if we’re finally biting back, great. It's just that it might be a bit too late.
I was trying to explain to someone over Easter how a club paying thousands and thousands of pounds to managers and players courtesy of a huge bounty that comes through the turnstiles every fortnight could possibly be relegated to the seventh level of football in England. I failed.
Hereford have to win again. If they don’t it’s virtually all over. At least that keeps things simple.
COYW
The Bulls were already in control at Edgar Street when the incident occurred in the first half, with referee Callum Jones waving away appeals after a challenge inside the box on Harry Tustin.
While the Bulls boss said Tustin was barged in the back, it appeared the Cheltenham loanee may have run into his man and gone down.
"For my liking, it's easy for me to say, but it's a penalty in my eyes," Downes said. "It's clear, he's got a touch on it and he's been barged in the back.
"Anywhere else on the pitch it’s a free-kick, so it should be a penalty.”
A professional display from the Bulls saw them comfortably see the game out and end their horrific run of seven straight defeats - a record not seen since 1997.
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| Merthyr boss Paul Michael has apologised to the travelling fans |
He slammed his side for being bullied, making poor decisions, giving silly fouls away, being weak and lacking a cutting edge as their play-off hopes fade.
Despite clinging onto the last play-off place by a point, the Martyrs have only won three of their last 15 games and three points from Edgar Street would have been crucial as they now only have four games left of their season.
Speaking to the club's media after the game, the former Cinderford and Yate Town boss, who masterminded their promotion from step three and a positive start to this season's campaign, apologised to the 593 supporters who made the trip.
"We just don't seem to deliver in the big moments," he said, adding: "They welcomed us on the pitch brilliantly. It was fantastic to see so many of them here and I just apologise that we didn't show up on pitch.
"Secondly, credit to Hereford. They were right up for the game and they absolutely bullied us. In that 21-minute spell, we've lost our bottle.
"Making poor decisions which brings pressure on us like giving silly fouls away, giving corners away when we don't need to.
'That's exactly the opportunities that they were looking for and then they executed them really well.
"They were physically bigger, stronger in winning duels in that first half. They ran all over us, which is really disappointing to see."
Michael was quick to praise Hereford, who ended their seven-game losing streak thanks to goals from Lewis Hudson, Mikey Lane and Matt Preston, but said his side "defended poorly".
"It's very rare that we've been run all over in the way that we were in the first half, so credit to Hereford," he added.
"They had some quality and some pace out there as well which hurt us. Second half was a little bit better, we won a few more duels, we ran around a bit more, but we had no cutting edge and didn't really look like scoring.
"That's a big issue for us at the moment."
A selection of pictures from the first half of this afternoon's game.
Some pictures from before kick-off at Edgar Street.
