There’s a distinctly southern
feel to tomorrow’s Conference North match between Brackley and Hereford at St
James Park, kick off 3pm. As with Guiseley, no-one really knows where Brackley
is, but it’s almost certainly a long way south of anything anyone would call northern.
And of course we all know where Hereford is relative to, say, Blyth, and if you
don’t and you’re reading this you may be on the wrong website.
Just for clarity, it can be
safely assumed that this St James Park is neither really northern in Newcastle
or really southern in Exeter. There, I hope that’s clear – I’ve been on holiday
so I’m a bit jaded.
However, despite its geographical
quirkiness, it’s still a football match, and it’s one from which the Bulls will
be looking to get back on track with a win, after collecting just a solitary
point from the last three matches.
‘Game management’ and ‘being a
good age’ are, as we know, seemingly all the rage at the moment, and certainly
in the recent match against Bradford PA it was noticeable that naivity from the
home side was pounced on at important moments of the match by superior, you
guessed it, game management from a team with a reputation for ‘doing a job’
away from home.
However, we’ve got ‘being a good
age’ in spades, and it has to be hoped that the players’ collective learning
curve in this much tougher division is arriving at a point where the naivity
fades and the quality there clearly is in the relatively youthful squad starts
to shine through in the form of some nice juicy confidence-boosting wins.
We’ve also got ‘being a right old
age’ at centre back, but recent suggestions that this could be a season too far
for Ryan Green are surely premature.
I suppose it’s also worth
considering that being ‘a good age’ is just a number rather than a defining
quality in a footballer. I know some 24-year-olds who could pride themselves on
their age, if they were clutching at personality trait straws, but they’d be
absolute drivel on a football pitch.
Anyway, enough of all that. More
pertinently, late in the game against York last Saturday there was enough to
suggest that the Bulls retain a cutting edge and a decent shout at challenging
for the play-offs in the spring if, and it’s a big if, they can convert the
sort of half chances that haven’t been going in recently. Maybe it’s luck,
maybe it’s the lack of a Guinan or a Mills, maybe it’s a mixture.
As for Brackley, they’re current
FA Trophy holders, and finished third in the division last season, conceding
just 37 goals. They’ve played several of the teams the Bulls have faced this
season, including a creditable draw against leaders Chorley, who had to recover
a two-goal deficit courtesy of much-maligned goal machine Josh O’Keefe.
Talking
of ex-players, I can’t imagine anyone would have a bad word to say about
ex-Bull Luke Graham, now playing for Brackley, and if they’ve got ten more like
him they’ll be tough to beat.
Right, I’m off to find a road
atlas.
COYW