Harwood Bull reports from Altrincham.
Hereford lined up with Liburd, Symons and Waite as a front three which didn’t look very well balanced to me, and produced little attacking threat in the first half. Eliot Richards was centre midfield and had a lot of space and time on the ball but wasn’t able to play any telling passes into the forwards, mainly because they were about as mobile as a row of fence posts and gave him very few options.
Tom Owen-Evans has been one of the bright spots of the season for me and he continued to work tirelessly and showed skill on the ball. Also Keiran Thomas did a passable impression of a Jack Russell, snapping at anything that moved near him and biting hard in the tackle. Pushing him forward has toughened up the midfield – he constantly harries the opposition, and when he wins the ball gives a simple pass to a team mate to try and get things going forward.
There were lots of danger signs from the start. Both Altrincham wingers were quick and tended to come infield. The first good chance came when Ceesay cut in from the left flank and as he was forced across the field the ball was squeezed through to Hulme, who had just kept onside. His shot was blocked on the line, and then a second chance from the rebound was blocked by Greenslade. Ceesay continued to give Hickman a hard time on the left hand side but the only other clear chance for the Robins in the first 45 came from the opposite wing when Chadwick came inside onto his left foot and let go a powerful shot which Yates tipped over the bar.
The second half started with Finn replacing the largely ineffective Rowan Liburd. Liburd’s first half performance was baffling: very little movement, didn’t take up any good positions, and often drifted out wide which is not where you want your 6 foot 4 centre forward to be. Maybe it’s lack of confidence but he never showed much sign of wanting the ball in tight positions. That’s not something you could ever accuse Symons of, but he looks, frankly, knackered and seemed to admit as much in his post match comments.
Finn almost made an impact within a minute of the restart, breaking quickly and trying to curl one into the far corner, but the home keeper pushed it round the post.
The Bulls had a big scare when Greenslade made a complete mess of things on the half way line and was dispossessed but Altrincham failed to take advantage.
The deadlock was broken in the 53rd minute. The ref allowed the advantage following a heavy challenge by Josh Gowling, and Hulme raced away to score with an angled shot across Yates into the far corner. The Hereford skipper was then booked for the foul in the build up to the goal.
Richards, who had taken a knock, was replaced by O’Sullivan in the 63rd minute. The Bulls were back on level terms just a minute after. Owen-Evans showed typical spirit chasing the Altrincham centre backs and charged down an attempted pass out of defence. He seized on the ball and ran on to score with a shot from the edge of the area.
The game was evenly balanced thereafter. The Bulls had a close escape when a deflected cross from the left was headed against the post but the ball rebounded safely into Yates’s grasp. Other than that there were no other clear scoring chances for the rest of the game.
My overall feeling now, at the (almost) end of the season is that it’s all gone very flat. I suppose, that given how bad things were at one point we should be pleased to have fairly comfortably avoided relegation in the end, but it doesn’t feel like that to me – it need never have got into that state in the first place. We all have a view, and we’ll never know for sure, but my thoughts are that the decision to replace Beadle was made a long time before he was actually fired and had he been given the resources and not undermined the whole sorry mess could have been avoided.
Today the main frustration for me and most others sitting around me was the lack of adventure showed by Hereford when in possession. The ball seemed to spend most of the time going sideways or backwards, no-one being prepared to try to open up the opposing defence with something more positive. Is that down to player confidence or is it all part of the very cautious, safety first, game plan that the management team appear to believe in? Acquiring a reputation for being ‘difficult to beat’ is all very well, but is that the limit of our ambition? If so then we are in for a pretty dull time.
Ah well, it’ll soon be August. Onwards and, hopefully, upwards.
Come On You Whites!
Full Time: Altrincham 1 (Hulme) – Hereford FC 1 (Owen-Evans)
Attendance 1407
Hereford FC: Yates, Hickman, Greenslade, Thomas, Cullinane-Liburd, Gowling (c), Richards (O’Sullivan), Owen-Evans, Liburd (Finn), Waite, Symons.
Subs not used: Ezewele, Wharton, Wezolowski