Alfreton, tomorrow’s opponents, are a number of places above Hereford in the table, but only a couple of wins separate the two, and the visitors are on a poor run, culminating in a home defeat to lower-graded Farsley Celtic in the Trophy last weekend. Too often lately the Bulls seem to have come up against opponents in good form, but that won't be the case tomorrow.
It could have been hoped, even by the most ardent pessimist, that
more than one point would have been earned in a run of three games against
FCUM, Southport and Darlington, two of which were at home, but one point was the return from those games, and
Hereford have to start beating some of the clubs who could be around them at the pointy end of the season (Alfreton escaped relegation by three points last term), hopefully
beginning with tomorrow’s game.
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| Tom Owen-Evans |
That’s
not to diminish their footballing ability. Everyone knows we’ve been
comprehensively out-footballed as well as out-muscled on numerous occasions in
the last few months. However, if TOE can be adequately protected by others
around him, perhaps for instance new signing James Wesolowski when fit, he looks to have the
ability to unlock defences, and also has an eye for goal.
In defence,
Harvey Smith was at fault for the FCUM goal last weekend, and with Jordan
Cullinane-Liburd looking to be coming back into the sort of form that saw him
granted the captaincy not long ago, there could be a case for Ryan Green
returning to partner him. This would, of course, mean that a captain has been
dropped twice this season, and that’s not something you see very often, but
wins are hard enough to come by at the moment without chucking at least a goal
a game in for the opposition, and a combination at the back needs to be found
to shore things up. New signing Joel Dielna also comes into contention, and will hopefully offer some French brawn and savoir faire. If nothing else, it's nice to have a Frenchman at Edgar Street again. OK there have been a few dodgy ones, but one or two club ledges too in the HUFC days. Here's hoping Joel falls into the latter category.
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| Mike Symons |
Up top, Mike Symons’ return has resulted in the ball spending at least some of the
match in the opposition’s half rather than pinging straight back into our own, and again it's to be assumed that the Beast will play a significant role in proceedings.
Hopefully the 1500 missing from Edgar Street
last Saturday will decide to give it another go, if only because they can see
that the players are giving it everything they’ve got to get the club back on
an even keel. Even the most abject performances of late, and there are a few to
choose from, have often started with the Bulls being quick out of the traps. If
that sort of bright start can result in an early goal for once tomorrow it
could be two wins from two.
COYW