A brightish start to the season
followed by a slide down the table, a lack of midfield bite leaving the defence
exposed, and a manager hinting that he’ll have to take time to bring his own
players in to arrest the slide. This season is becoming a mirror image of the
last. Supporters will be hoping that this situation doesn’t continue for too
much longer because another winter bumbling about in the bottom six wasn’t in
the script when the board were looking at a season in and around the play-off
positions in their pre-season pronouncements.
Admittedly that slide is
partially explained by the two postponed games, but no win in four matches (in which only two goals have been scored) has contributed more significantly.
The Bulls host full-time Gateshead
on Tuesday evening, kick off 7:45pm, one of the two fixtures rearranged
following the recent international call-ups, and new manager Russell Slade will
be looking for the players to show some of Iain Dowie’s bouncebackability, and
indeed backbone, in getting back to winning ways.
It’s another tough one, with
Gateshead only beaten once in ten games this season, and they come into this
one after thumping Boston 3-0 on Saturday, with all three goals coming after
the break. Prior to that defeat the Pilgrims had been looking strong, and had
been rock-solid at the back, as witnessed recently in the 0-0 draw at Edgar Street,
so if a tight defensive unit can ship three to the Heed, where does that leave
Hereford? Eek. Let’s hope they all get travel sick on the slog down from
Tyneside.
The visitors sit in eighth
place, one point off the play-offs but with a game in hand, having recently
started winning matches rather than drawing them. They finished 17th in the
division above last season following a nine-point deduction for financial
skullduggery, but without that deduction would have been an impressive ninth.
They were also demoted, which seemed to make the points deduction somewhat
irrelevant. There was a feeling that they may take a while to find their feet
in National League North following the upheaval, and settle for a season of
consolidation, but this increasingly doesn’t seem to be the case.
As for the hosts, it was
something of a surprise to see Slade exclude Simeon Maye from his starting XI in
the timid capitulation to Guiseley on Saturday, so hopefully one of the more
promising new recruits this season will get his place back for this one, and
perhaps with a point to prove he’ll put another man-of-the-match performance in.
There are clearly issues at the
back, with a belief among fans that the Bulls were lucky to avoid cricket
scores against both Chester and Guiseley. New loanee Jack Bodenham looks like a
solid presence, but despite some last-gasp goal-line clearances on Saturday Jordan
Cullinane-Liburd has looked unsettled of late. Playing capable right-back Jared
Hodgkiss out of position at left back merely compounds the problem. With Raheem
Hanley looking like a lost sheep in that position when tried there, some news
on a date for Danny Greenslade’s return would be welcome. Club captain Josh
Gowling looks like a logical replacement for Cullinane-Liburd, unless Slade can
find an Eddie Hope-Under-Dinmore from somewhere to partner Bodenham.
Up front, Rowan Liburd
continues to Brexify fans, leaving them seemingly divided fairly equally between
believing him to be either languid or lazy, although the lazy lobby does now
seem to be edging the vote.
There’s a temptation to fear
that this match will be another under the lights in which the hosts start
brightly, rapidly run out of puff, and then look frustratingly lightweight in getting
comprehensively done over by a strong and capable team who dominate possession and
score seemingly at will, again mirroring last season.
Let’s hope it ain’t so, and
that the Bulls can get going again under the new boss with a win before putting
the league on hold and locking horns again with Truro in the FA Cup on
Saturday.
COYW