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Leave out superstitous players
The following article appears in this morning's Daily Telegraph.
The fate of Morecambe last season will come as a salutary warning to Hereford United tonight when they aim to end their seven-year absence from the Football League.
Morecambe, the Nationwide Conference runners-up 12 months ago, finished six points clear of Dagenham and Redbridge, taking four points off the east London club in regular season fixtures, yet still succumbed to the eventual losing finalists in the play-off semi-finals.
If any of Graham Turner's players are superstitious, Hereford's manager would do well to omit them from his side visiting Aldershot tonight in the first leg of the semi-final. For Hereford's parallel with Morecambe cannot be overlooked.
With a record-equalling sequence of 11 successive victories that took them to within a point of the champions Chester, Hereford are the Conference's form team. They finished 21 points clear of the fifth-placed Aldershot, completing a league double over them. Their total of 103 goals was 18 more than Chester and 23 more than their hosts at the Recreation Ground.
"We have played some great stuff and in any other season we would be champions," said Mark Beesley, Hereford's match winner against Chester on Saturday. "But we knew the system before the start of the season."
On paper, at least, the other semi-final is more tightly balanced. Only three points separated third-placed Shrewsbury from fourth-placed Barnet in the final reckoning. Both sides won 1-0 on the other's ground.
Under player-manager Jimmy Quinn, Shrewsbury will be trying to regain lost League status at the first attempt. The 44-year-old Irishman, who scored in the 3-3 draw at Morecambe on Saturday, nevertheless contributes less to the action these days.
He will probably give way to one of the club's top scorers, Luke Rodgers or Duane Darby, who were both rested at the weekend.