Curzon Ashton at Edgar Street
on Saturday then, kick off 3pm. This one’s massive, and they don’t say that too
often in punditland about football matches involving Curzon Ashton. Having
said that, Hereford’s last home game against divisional whipping boys Bradford
was similarly massive, a must win etc, and the Bulls were arguably second best
in that one as they failed to beat a side who’ve been beaten all ends up by
more or less everyone this season.
This is the third installment in
a four-match run of winnable matches. So far it hasn’t gone well, with the
inability to look remotely threatening against rock-bottom Bradford followed by
a frustratingly late postponement at Kettering. However, the board have of
course acted in dramatic and decisive fashion in midweek in an effort to ensure another
season in the NLN. It’s pretty clear, from results alone, that for whatever
reason Russell Slade was utterly incapable of getting the squad running through
walls for him, metaphorically of course. (No-one would expect them to do that
physically like Chris Price used to when unable to slow his momentum following
‘those’ 1-2s with Jimmy Harvey in the mid-80s). This, therefore, is a golden
opportunity for the players to show for the rest of the season what they can
really do for a boss who is ‘one of their own’.
If Josh Gowling can find a way
to get this squad of players playing to their potential between now and the
rearranged return to Kettering, last Saturday looks like a dodged bullet, as on
all available evidence it was very difficult to make a case for anything other
than the Bulls shipping the traditional three goals away, or something much
worse.
The Nash, with all due respect,
should trot out at 3pm on Saturday edgy, but they won’t, they’ll fancy it,
and they’ll have good reason to. How did it come to this? As has been said
before here recently, it surely can’t be a coincidence for good players with
good records and reputations to all fall to bits at once. Tom Owen Evans
returns from his loan spell at Chippenham, with Gowling hinting that he’d
struggled for the Bulls earlier in the season as a result of being played out
of position. He certainly wasn’t alone in that. If the player coming back is
the TOE of last season, and Rowan Liburd feels he has unfinished business at
Edgar Street and plays with purpose, results could soon turn around, the
reasons for the current abysmal run of form will become clearer, and the board will feel vindicated.
The visitors, in common with
many of the teams in the NLN, are excellent at playing the referee when playing
the ball isn’t working for them, quick to resort to the sort of irritating
antics the Bulls haven’t always been totally wise to in the past. They’re obviously
scrapping for survival, as they did last season
and the one before that, and they’re just four points clear of a relatively
resurgent Blyth, having played a game more than Spartans, who themselves are
starting to look a good bet to stay up. In a six-pointer between the two sides earlier this month, Blyth came out victorious.
Curzon may have
made short work of seeing off Farsley Celtic last week, but then who hasn’t in
recent months? OK, don’t answer that, but the fact remains that a Bulls squad
that really should be rejuvenated by the departure of a regime that just wasn’t
working should have enough bite and motivation to come out on top in this one. 18-year-old striker Owen Watkinson comes into the visitors' squad on loan from Blackpool for the rest of the season as they search for the goals they hope will keep them up.
I’m sure what’s required here
is the throwing of caution to the wind. Two strikers, two attacking wide men,
everyone apart from the goalie running really fast in a forward direction,
preferably with the ball - all in all a highly entertaining ‘if they score
four, we score five’ approach. With Dawson and Thomas missing there’s an
argument for doing away with a midfield presence entirely anyway.
Just like the Bradford one,
this has to be won, but considerably more so. The players will be well aware of
that famed footballing adage: “You don’t throw the towel in under Howlin’ Josh
Gowlin'”, for whom folk hero status awaits if the above tactical approach is
adopted and actually works. It could also bring back the missing 1000 in short
order.
Good luck Josh!
COYW