Hereford Women have won their League game at Pegasus this afternoon.
Final score: Pegasus 0 Hereford 5.
Hereford were 1-0 at the break through to Maisie Evans.
Second half goals from Alisha Herdman, a penaly scored by Sheree Smith, and further goals from Tianna Chant and Sheree Smith sealed the victory for Hereford.
Next Sunday Hereford Women are set to play at Edgar Street. Their opponents will be Long Itchington who are based at Kenilworth.
To watch please go to:
https://www.afcfylde.co.uk/videos/06f6cd91-b25a-41fe-81c6-e1ffcaf2818d
We did indeed come away with nothing but that really doesn’t tell the whole story. The Bulls matched the home team in all aspects of the game, and had enough chances to have been two up at half time. If the game was measured by that ludicrous metric beloved of Sky Sports pundits, xG, we would have had it sown up. However the only number that counts is goals scored, and having battled for the win right to the end the Bulls fell to a goal from substitute Ustabasi in the last of the 4 additional minutes.
Hereford made three changes to the starting line up from the side who drew against Telford as Mafuta, Edwards and Williams came in. Howkins was injured; Richards and Campbell on the bench. Theo in goal behind Skinner, Preston, Parker and Hudson. Mufata & Cooper in the deeper midfield positions, Osborne, Edwards and Sterling-James the three behind lone striker Williams, in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Much has been said about the single striker option, and while it’s not inherently a bad idea, it only works if the others get up to support him, and on many occasions Williams looked quite isolated.
Having said that, on 6 minutes he was put through by Mufata but the Fylde keeper saved comfortably. Two minutes later from a Fylde corner Thomas had a worryingly unchallenged header but was way off target. Then at the other end Williams was through again but once more was denied by Jones who then saved again from Osborne’s attempt to score from the rebound. From the resulting corner the ball fell again to Osborne whose low shot was just wide. Exciting stuff.
The game was quite open, with both sides having chances. Hudon crossed from the left, and Osborne hooked the ball back into the middle from beyond the far post for Williams to attempt a diving header, risking decapitation from the keeper’s boot as he hacked it clear. With the Bulls heavily committed to attack, and with Hudson now out of position Fylde broke upfield, the Bulls failed to clear and Ormerod finished strongly to put the home side 1-0 up.
Hereford still kept taking the game to Fylde. Williams had an opportunity to score on 37 minutes, seizing on a loose back pass, but Jones smothered the
chance. Then Osborne’s cross from the right was deflected behind Williams just as it appeared to be dropping perfectly for him.
Shortly before half time Paul Caddis was yellow carded for something he said. He just can’t help himself.
That was the last event of any note in the half, and the Bulls went in 1-0 down but certainly not outplayed.
Half time: AFC Fylde 1 Hereford FC 0
On 67 minutes Hereford drew level. With two Fylde defenders looking to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick Hudson manged to get to the ball and with the home keeper coming out, Hudson’s low cross found Willo at the back post for a tap-in.
At this point the game looked as if it could go either way. The Bulls weren’t holding on for a draw, and clearly thought they could win it. Sadly it was the home team that did, Ormerod putting Ustabasi in for the final goal.
The Teams
Hereford: Richardson, Skinner, Hudson, Preston, Parker, Mafuta (Richards 76), Cooper, Osborne, Edwards (Bitemo 90+2), Williams (Campbell 78), Sterling-James
Subs: Lewis, Quansah, Rooney
AFC Fylde: Jones, Mitchell, Taylor, Merrie, Thomas, Healy-Byrne, Brockbank, C Whelan, T Whelan, Colclough, Ormerod
Subs: Boyes, Coates, McFayden, Wilson, Jolley, Ustabasi, Meadowcroft
Man of the match: Parker is both literally and figuratively head and shoulders above of the rest and clearly has a good football career ahead of him. However my choice for MoM would be Cooper. Maybe surprising but he protected the back four well, broke up attacks and used the ball quickly and effectively. With Mufata still a long way short of full fitness he was doing two player’s jobs for a while until Richards replaced big Gus.
I’ve written before about the set up at Fylde. It’s very impressive at this level of football, but with only small towns and villages nearby, and competing for support with Preston, Blackpool and Fleetwood, it can’t be sustainable without considerable financial input from the owner. Yesterday’s crowd was about 1,100. Do the maths.
I have to be honest, I’m not a fan of drums at football matches. However you have to give credit to the travelling support behind the goal for their commitment, particularly for the relentless 20 minute version of “That’s the way (Uh-huh) I like it”. What it lacked in musicality it more than made up for in stamina.
The pies and mushy peas were reasonable, although describing the pie as “Steak and Ale” was overselling it a bit. Seven out of ten.
The Bulls have to shrug off the disappointment and prepare for the visit of Curzon Ashton next week.
COYW
Harwood Bull
A few pictures from after the final whistle at Fylde yesterday. The home team scored in the 94th minutes to take all three points. But that was hard on Hereford who had probably deserved a point from the game.
A selection of pictures from the second half of yesterday's National North League game between AFC Fylde and Hereford.
But he felt his team were looked tired.
And he said Hereford were really good.
"The 94th minute winner is up there with the best feelings in football," said Mahon.
"But the first 93 were not great.
"Looking back at it I felt we were tired, I thought we looked sloppy, we were not doing the basics right.
"In all fairness to Hereford, I thought they were really good.
"I thought they put us under a lot of pressure.
"I thought they did some really good stuff, they moved the ball well and they gave us a really good game."
AFC Fylde (1) 2-1 (0) Hereford
AFC Telford United (1) 2-1 (1) Worksop Town
Buxton (5) 6-0 (0) Alfreton Town
Chester (0) 1-2 (1) Bedford Town [2492]
Chorley (0) 0-2 (1) Merthyr Town
Curzon Ashton (1) 1-0 (0) Peterborough Sports
Darlington (2) 2-0 (0) Southport
Kidderminster Harriers (0) 1-0 (0) Spennymoor Town
King's Lynn Town (0) 1-3 (0) Radcliffe
Macclesfield (1) 1-0 (0) South Shields
Oxford City (0) 1-1 (0) Leamington
Scarborough Athletic (0) 1-2 (0) Marine
The updated league table can be found here: http://bullsnews.blogspot.com/p/league-table.html
Hereford manager Paul Caddis feels his side should have left Fylde with a point, or even three, but they instead fell to a late 2-1 defeat.
A late winner for the hosts saw Hereford leave empty handed when they really deserved at least a point.
Listen to Caddis’s reaction in full below.
The HUST coach on route to Fylde has been delayed.
The coach is currently stopped on the side of the M6 above Warrington after an accident.
There is some damage to the side of the coach caused by a car which appeared to come into the side of the coach.
All the passengers and the driver of the coach are fine
As at 2.50 it is hoped the coach will be able to continue it's journey shortly.
A large section of the Merton Meadow car park, next to Hereford's Edgar Street Stadium, has closed for good as the area is turned into a wetland.
The northern section of Merton Meadow at 7.38pm on Tuesday 21st October
The £2 million flood alleviation scheme will unlock land in the area for around 400 homes.
Your Herefordshire reports that the lower section of the 650-space car park, north of the link road and generally referred to as the overflow area, is now closed.
Earlier this month, Herefordshire Council leader Jonathan Lester said the goal was to have the project finished “towards the end of the year”.
As Hereford faced AFC Telford United on Tuesday 21st October, the overflow car park - which earns Herefordshire Council £2,512.08 a day on average - was in use, as usual, as 2,583 football fans headed to Edgar Street.
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| The Southern section of the Merton Meadow car park at 7.42pm on Tuesday 21st October |
Cllr Andrews added that a loss of parking “is a great anxiety to many people who use it regularly, not only the football club but who park there on a daily basis”.
Leominster South Green Party councillor Mark Woodall said football fans fear the loss of the car park and how it could “kill off attendances", as well as affecting businesses who get a matchday boost.
Cllr Lester said: “Merton Meadow is a substantial car park and any development will have an impact on parking provision.
“So it’s part of a wider strategy that we must adopt to make sure that we have sufficient parking provision, and we’re working on schemes to make sure that that is seen as a greater whole.”
The weland that will be created in Merton Meadow car park. Picture: MOOWD/Herefordshire Council
As first reported by Bulls News, during the 30th July planning committee that approved the wetland scheme with conditions, Independents for Herefordshire councillor Matthew Engel (Golden Valley South) said he was “very dubious” the lost parking could be replaced.
Cllr Engel feared the wetlands could also hamper Hereford FC, adding: “We have to take into account that Hereford United FC were, in their day, the most famous thing this county had. I think this will have an adverse effect on them ever being such a thing again.”
Planning officer Heather Carlisle’s report said that while spaces would go, Hereford’s car parks had capacity to absorb them, with surveys showing Merton Meadow averaged just 38 per cent occupancy between April 2022 and April 2024. She added that land north of the link road would be retained for coach and lorry parking.
During that same meeting, Castle's Conservative councillor Robert Highfield feared the wetlands could prove too popular as a visitor attraction and become a victim of its own success.
Hereford fan Colin Butler has also been vocal in his opposition to the plans for Merton Meadow, saying he has great concerns over the baffling housing vision and the thought of a new multi-storey on the bus station is flawed.
A list of fixtures in the National North League this afternoon.
AFC Fylde v Hereford
AFC Telford v Worksop
Buxton v Alfreton
Chester v Bedford
Chorley v Merthyr
Curzon Ashton v Peterborough Sports
Darlington v Southport
Kidderminster v Spennymoor
Kings Lynn v Radcliffe
Macclesfield v South Shields
Oxford City v Leamington
Scarborough v Marine
A preview of this afternoon's games from the National League.
South Shields are still the team to beat but there are plenty nipping at their ankles heading into the weekend.
Ian Watson takes his side to Macclesfield having only dropped two points from their five games on their travels this season.
Macclesfield know they could be back in the top seven with a win.
Only one other side can finish the day top of the pile but AFC Fylde know it'll take a repeat of their 5-0 rout of Spennymoor on Tuesday if they are to do it - Hereford are in town next.
That defeat was the Moors' only once since August and Graeme Lee has urged his side to bounce back in style against resurgent Kidderminster Harriers.
Radcliffe have made joint-boss Anthony Johnson 'dead pleased' of late after going six unbeaten.
King's Lynn Town are up next who haven't won a National League North game since the last weekend in August.
Alfreton Town make the short trip to Derbyshire neighbours Buxton while avoiding defeat at Curzon Ashton could see Peterborough Sports lift themselves off the bottom.
Bedford Town know they're up against it heading to Chester who have gone over a year unbeaten at the Deva.
Can Scarborough nip their blip in the bud after back-to-back defeats conceding four goals? Marine will hope not.
Chorley weathered the Southport storm midweek despite a last-minute panic between the sticks. The Magpies are four without a win with Merthyr Town next up.
Darlington host Southport while Worksop Town head to AFC Telford United fresh from their two-goal fightback against King's Lynn on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, the two sides bottom of the form table meet as Leamington head to Oxford City with both taking just a point from their last five games.
63 year old John Coleman is to manage National League Aldershot.
He takes up his new role from Monday.
He is best known to Hereford supporters as the manager of Accrington Stanley.
He was initially appointed in 1999 and stayed in the post until 2012.
Two years later he rejoined Accrington and stayed in charge until 2024.
With the news that journalist Brian Viner is to speak at Hereford's hospitality event before the Southport match on November 8th, BN looks back to November 2007 and his visit to Edgar Street.
All supporters of Premier League football clubs should, in my humble opinion, go to see the odd game between teams several divisions lower. It's not only better for the wallet, it's also good for the soul.
A week ago yesterday I went to Edgar Street to see my local team, Hereford United of League Two, play Leeds United of League One in the first round of the FA Cup. It was wonderful. I had forgotten the spirit that envelops a small, ramshackle football stadium on cold, autumnal nights, not to mention the smell that envelops Edgar Street in particular; the smell of apples being pressed at the nearby Bulmer's cider factory.
My son Joe and I were invited by my friend Simon, whose company sponsored the match. Simon is a lifelong Hereford fan, and it would be wrong to compare his anticipation of the match with that of a child on Christmas Eve only in the sense that no child on Christmas Eve was ever as excited. He phoned umpteen times in the week before the match to remind me that it was the first time Hereford had ever played Leeds, and indeed the first time Leeds had played in the first round of the FA Cup for 86 years. I stoked Simon's excitement by telling him that the last time I saw Leeds play live, the opposition was Barcelona, in the group stages of the Champions League. It wasn't that long ago, either. Never mind the subsequent plummet in Leeds' fortunes, could Hereford beat the team that mighty Barcelona failed to beat seven years ago almost to the night at Elland Road?
In the first half I sat next to another friend of Simon's, a lovely fellow called Farmer. Only in Herefordshire are you likely to encounter a man whose first name, as well as his occupation, is Farmer. Incidentally, in 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain, Dr George Gallup, the man who gave his name to the Gallup poll, travelled around England asking people if they had heard of Winston Churchill. Surprisingly, only 96 per cent had. And the four per cent who had not were all Herefordshire farmers, with more important things to worry about, like getting the sheep fleeced and the cows to market. It's still that kind of county in many ways, which shows why the game against Leeds, still considered city slickers hereabouts, so gripped the imagination.
Moreover, it was an FA Cup tie, and it could be argued that Hereford have a more glorious Cup history than any other club, insofar as Hereford have no glorious history apart from the FA Cup. Simon is just about the only lifelong Bulls fan I know over the age of 40 who admits he wasn't there on the unforgettable afternoon of 5 February 1972 when Hereford, then a Southern League club, beat First Division Newcastle United in an FA Cup third-round replay.
My new friend Farmer was, however. He was 11 years old, and was accompanied to the match by his nine-year-old sister on the strict parental condition that he was not to let her out of his sight. But as soon as Ronnie Radford equalised Malcolm Macdonald's 82nd-minute opener, Farmer joined the pitch invasion and promptly lost his sister. "I didn't see her again until Ricky George scored the winner in extra time," he told me. "Then there was another pitch invasion and that's where I found her, on the pitch."
It is unlikely that any feat of FA Cup giant-killing will ever come close to matching that one, either at Edgar Street or anywhere else, especially in this skewed football world in which Premier League Manchester City beating Premier League Manchester United counts as giant-killing. All the same, if Leeds had been beaten it would have been another famous Edgar Street victory, and they nearly were: in an entertaining 0-0 draw Hereford were much the better side, which bodes well for Tuesday's replay ("the first time we've ever played at Elland Road," Simon tells me).
The match was my first sight of Hereford this season, and the first time I had seen 19-year-old Lionel Ainsworth, who signed in the summer after being released by Derby County. I fancy young Ainsworth might yet make an impact in the higher echelons, and my talent-spotting record isn't bad. In 1983, I went to Vancouver to visit my Canadian friend Bruce, who took me to watch Vancouver Whitecaps against San Jose Earthquakes in the North American Soccer League. A Whitecaps player let go by Manchester United the season before impressed me so much that I wrote to the Everton manager, Howard Kendall, recommending him. At the time I was a 21-year-old university student; even if my letter did reach Kendall it probably reached his bin seconds later. But eight years later the player did join Everton, from Liverpool, for a bargainous £1m.
Lionel Ainsworth probably won't have the career that Peter Beardsley did, but if he does, you read it here first. In the meantime, c'mon you Bulls...
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Following Hereford FC’s home draw against Telford on Tuesday evening, it’s another tough away assignment on Saturday as the Bulls travel up to Fylde, or more specifically Wesham.
The hosts, relegated to this level last season, have bounced back very well, and sit in second position in the table. Like South Shields, they’re a full-time club with financial backing that really should see them being competitive in the division above.
There are some tiny chinks in their armour at home in that they’ve ‘only’ won half of the games they’ve played this season at Mill Farm, and have conceded only one goal fewer than Hereford on their own patch. It’s therefore not the fortress South Shields is.
A nice local one for Paul Caddis for a change, not far from his home in the northwest. Hopefully he’ll enjoy that relative cushiness in terms of the travel, and not drive down to Hereford to get on a bus up to Fylde to prove his commitment to the cause, a commitment that is etched deep into his post-match interviews, and in his honest assessment of Tuesday night’s first-half dross.
These two last met at Mill Farm in February 2023, with Hereford emerging as deserving 3-1 winners against a side who went on to become champions that season. They rested three key players that night and regretted it, but if they watch the video of the first half of Tuesday night’s Edgar Street display they may feel they can rest 11. If whole halves continue to be gifted to the opposition the end of the season could be quite exciting in all the wrong ways.
Kyle Howkins was more or less alone among the outfield players in terms of showing up for that first half on Tuesday, although an isolated Remaye Campbell meant that the ball didn’t stick in the Telford half and they were able to launch attack after attack with ease as a result. The sense of it dawning on the visitors after about ten minutes just how easy it was to cut through the home side was palpable, as was their delighted surprise.
It was an interesting match-up in the sense that both clubs are part-time, operate with presumably similar budgets, and use the West Midlands conurbation as the pool from which to sign a lot of their players, and yet the sides looked a division apart in that first half. The manager’s assessment of it being ‘crap’ was right, but unfortunately that wasn’t just a one-off aberration this season.
A handful of positives: Gus Mafuta looks like a proper footballer, an authoritative leader on the pitch, and should become hugely influential once fit. Mike Parker’s return is very obviously a huge boost. I-Lani Edwards will score a glut of good goals between now and Christmas. Matt Preston looks more mobile than he did a week or two ago. Theo Richardson gives the side the chance to salvage something from any game with his saves and distribution.
And some not-so-positives: the first name on most people’s teamsheet this season would be Kyle Howkins, who went off in slightly gingerly fashion on Tuesday, unsurprisingly given that he had to carry the team for the first half. He will be a very big miss indeed here if he’s not fit to start. Also, another fit striker is badly needed. Rem Campbell on his own up front with no other Hereford shirt anywhere near him makes things very, very easy for four defenders, through no fault of the player himself. It's a baffling approach tactically given that Hereford have frequently got absolutely thumped whenever it's tried.
If the club can only afford one fit striker, as one of the three best supported sides in the division, that is what it is for a club being run sustainably. This level is therefore the natural ceiling for HFC in the crazy world of football economics, when so many others limp on as economic basket cases.
Season tickets will have to be marketed honestly as such in the future of course, with uber-glamorous games against fellow part-timers Tamworth being cup finals for HFC, if by some miracle the Edgar Street minnows find a way to sneak up to the National League at some point, to play such giants of the game. How things have changed since that baking hot August opening day of the season at Tamworth in 2003 that announced the arrival of one of the most exciting Hereford sides ever invented.
I'm OK with the sustainability element (who wouldn't be?) as long as honesty in terms of what the phoenix club is capable of sits alongside it. Promotion to the Football League, for instance, won't ever happen with the current model.
The Coasters are managed by Craig Mahon, and the last time he was seen by Hereford fans they were waving him down the Edgar Street tunnel following a red card for Curzon Ashton last season. Mahon has started well at the club, but he’ll need to continue to build on that success as the club tends to get through one manager a year.
Centre forward Danny Ormerod has nine league goals this season, which isn’t bad for a 19-year-old. Jon Ustabasi will be familiar to Bulls fans from his time as a stand-out performer with Chorley, and winger Luca Thomas came through the ranks at Leeds and weighs in with goals and assists aplenty.
Fylde are stronger in all departments than Telford, which is a concern. They won 5-0 at Spennymoor on Tuesday, after Spennymoor had put six past Merthyr last weekend, which is also a concern. It’s probably best not to read the report from that game, but ‘Phenomenal’ and ‘That was one of the best performances from a team I’ve been involved with’ were used to describe it, as opposed to ‘crap’.
However, the National League North is an utter madman of a football division, which by my reckoning makes this an away banker. Some magic from Messrs Parker, Edwards and Sterling-James please, and another goal or two from Sam Osborne against his old club.
COYW