It’s Tuesday, which can only
mean it's time for the relatively short trip to Shropshire’s pre-eminent football club, AFC
Telford United, for another watching-from-behind-the-sofa experience for Bulls fans in the
Vanarama National League North, 7:45pm kick off. Telford have
indicated that away supporters will have to bring their own sofas.
For the past few seasons
looking in on this division as an outsider, Telford seem to have been season-long
bottom feeders before doing just enough to stay up. However, this season,
following the introduction of a new management team, they’re doing much better,
sitting in sixth position, although they’ve only won one of their last five,
last time out at home against York.
In the summer, every time they
announced a signing, it sounded like a good one. There was of course the usual
guff about them being ‘exciting’, ‘a coup’ etc, but the players coming in all
seemed to be from good clubs and had good pedigrees. This was while Pete Beadle
was taking punts left, right and centre on his rough diamonds. That could of
course simply reflect a disparity in playing budgets, or the fact that
Telford’s only a short motorway trip from the West Midlands conurbation, and
therefore an easier sell to players geographically, but it did demonstrate even
then that the big fish/little pond era was well and truly over for Hereford FC.
The Bulls’ alarming recent plunge in form seems to bear this out big time.
However, it’s getting to that
point as a supporter, after picking up just two points from the last 27
available, that, if only by the law of averages, ‘this could be the match’.
Marc Richards has asked fans to keep the faith, confident that results will
come, and on the basis of the first half on Saturday at Boston there could be
more to that than just wishful thinking. Having endured the utter misery of the
last couple of months, no-one’s going to want to miss that moment when the
players click, they score from every chance they create, and there’s no
set-piece naivity at the back. It’s written in the stars, and on Richards’
whiteboard.
Calvin Dinsley’s presumably a
doubt for this one after picking up a head injury against Boston, with Mike
McGrath a possible replacement. If Macca does start, he’s somehow got to get
through 90 minutes without irritating the referee. Given how unlikely that
seems, and because of the glimpses of creativity he showed in Lincolnshire on
Saturday coming on as a substitute, perhaps Tom Owen-Evans could be granted a start instead, and if so it
would be an attacking-looking midfield, giving some credence to Richards’
stated policy of setting up in every game to win it. However, another solution
would be to start with both in a 4-4-2, with Greener’s 38-year-old legs getting
a rest on the bench given that this match follows hot on the heels of the Boston
defeat.
There’s also an intriguing
little scenario in goal. If Martin Horsell’s fit following his own nasty head
bash, there’s an argument for him coming in to replace loanee Matt Yates. His
extra height alone could give more of a presence when defending corners and set
pieces. If we’re finally looking like we might score occasionally it would be a
shame to continue to effectively chuck three in at the other end by cowering
under pressure from a bunch of marauding northern giants.
Telford’s recent patchy form
provides a chink of light. A sneaky little confidence boosting 2-0 win tonight,
with an early goal to settle nerves, followed by a majestic thrashing of Alty
back home on Saturday and things suddenly look brighter, with Richards’
optimism more justified. Win neither and it could be a long winter.
COYW