As Herefordshire slowly dries
out following the havoc wreaked by Storm Dennis, Hereford FC host Darlington
this Saturday at Edgar Street, kick off 3pm, assuming the lingering rain
finally lets up.
With their last two away games
called off, the Bulls’ most recent outing was at home to Southport. It’s not
often that one can claim that the first 90 minutes of a game weren’t up to
much, but that was certainly the case, before yet another home draw was somehow
salvaged in overtime, as I believe the Americans would have it. Luckily, Blyth
continue on a path to self-destruction, and could take relegation fears out of
the equation for Hereford if they remain hell-bent on losing every week. It
would be nice, however, if those fears could be banished by the club’s own
efforts, with a run of better results, rather than because the two at the
bottom are almost unprecedentedly inept.
As a result of those
postponements, the players should go into this one well rested and with plenty
of get up and go, which too often this season has got up and gone a little too
readily, as heads drop following the concession of early goals. Josh Gowling is
still looking for his first win as interim gaffer, and there’s a sense that the
players would love to get him off the mark. To do this, they’ll have to put the
awful Southport performance behind them, and indeed the whole of the season to date,
and start yet again from scratch – admittedly a tall order.
Jordan Cullinane-Liburd starts
a three-match suspension here, with Ben Pollock also banned, but Martin Riley returns
from injury and will presumably slot in at centre back, offering some much
needed experience and authority in the process. Fit-again Kieran Thomas
similarly looks like a more than capable replacement for Pollock. Lenell John-Lewis
should start, and gives supporters a straw to clutch at in terms of offering some
threat up front, especially now that he’s got an acclimatising game under his
belt. Alongside The Shop from The Slop, Brad Ash had little impact against
Southport on returning from his loan spell, and perhaps Rowan Liburd will be
preferred, or indeed the newly prolific Kelsey Mooney.
Pollock starred in a battling
0-0 draw back in November when these clubs met in the northeast, with Tommy O’Sullivan
sent off in the first half for an inexplicable and entirely unnecessary handball.
Darlington were recently
flirting with the play-offs, and indeed are still just five points short of those
heady heights, but two defeats and a draw in their last three matches have scuppered
any such aspirations for the time being. Consecutive 3-0 losses to Chester and
Guiseley were followed by a 1-1 draw with Kidderminster, whose own current form
is spectacularly difficult to gauge. The Quakers’ goal difference is also
conspicuously poor. Away from home they don’t score too many and concede quite
readily. In fact, as hard as it may be to believe, they’re barely better than
Hereford on their travels. Diminutive striker Adam Campbell, with 12 goals this
season, wins this week’s ‘He’s managed to score a lot more than our two or three top scorers put together’
award. Sometime next season surely, surely in the build up to a match a Hereford player will have scored more to that date than the top scorer from the opposition.
The Bulls won this fixture 4-2
last season in what was truly a match of two halves, handily assisted in coming
back to win by some unbelievably charitable Quakers defending. It takes some
believing these days that it’s actually possible to score four goals in one
match, given the way the season has gone, but something similar this time
around certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
Best wishes to anyone who has
had a thoroughly rotten week as a result of the floods. Here’s hoping now for
some dry weather, and a four-goal home win.
COYW