Luckily it’s York away on Tuesday to get things back on track for a stuttering Hereford FC, as the Bulls look to record their first league win of the season in a city that has been something of a happy hunting ground in recent times.
The Minstermen have now moved from Bootham Crescent to somewhere that probably has a really soulless sponsory name and is ‘in York’ in the same way that Ryanair fly ‘to Rome’. I can’t bear to look. How rubbish is the name? Really bad? Quite bad? Or is it sponsored by a cooperative of people who live in Bootham Crescent in York who have renamed it ‘Bootham Crescent’? It’s not going to be that option is it? Not in 2021.
Anyway, whatever the destination’s called, York will presumably attempt to play a bit and not be as cynical or as generally ghastly as Leamington, a club whose captain could and perhaps should have been withdrawn by his manager at half time on Saturday for his assault on Luke Haines, but no-one at the club seemed to have the moral fibre to take such action. Unsurprisingly the player was sheepishly anonymous in the second half (I think I might have struggled to even come back out with the burden of guilt weighing too heavily upon my shoulders if I’d gratuitously and spitefully put someone in hospital, but I’m unusually perfect), yet even effectively playing against ten men didn’t see the hosts seize the initiative and win the game. It wasn’t unlucky, there weren’t countless chances created that just needed a prod to convert them into goals, it was more or less a 1-1 kind of match. It’s progress I suppose in that it wasn’t another home loss, but it’s also maybe a true reflection of where the club is currently at, which is bottom sixish come the end of the season unless that upturn arrives soon.
Everyone knew what Leamington would bring to the party before a ball was kicked (OK maybe everyone apart from the ref). However, any gamesmanship and thuggishness would have been rendered redundant if the home team had the cutting footballing edge to override it, but they didn’t.
Anyway, looking forward, given that this is supposed to be a preview rather than a post-mortem, Krystian Pearce is still to make his league debut for the Bulls as he recovers from an injury and/or being tied up in FA red tape. His presence here would be warmly welcomed, although Levi Andoh seems to be growing into his role as the club’s defender.
Ryan McLean is perhaps finding it hard to combine the significant step up to this level from Newcastle Town with trying to play on the left, when his left foot is only really something he uses for standing on. Admittedly the opposition was weaker in the Cup replay, but the triumvirate of Paddy Fini, TOE and Ryan Lloyd looked a lot more effective in that area of the pitch in that match than when McLean’s there, constantly having to check inside and slowing all momentum, rather than getting round the full back and to the byline.
York started the season slowly, losing their first three matches, but have picked up markedly in winning their last three. They beat Spennymoor away and then Farsley at home, scoring seven goals in those wins, compared to Hereford’s no goals against the same opponents. However, their 4-0 loss to Gloucester makes them 13 goals worse than Chorley, and that’s probably what I’d stick on the dressing room wall in big letters before the game if I was Josh Gowling. Last time out they beat Darlington 2-1 at the This Isn’t Feethams Community Stadium. One chink of light for the visitors is that York are leaky at the back.
York are of course a big fish in this pond and are expected to go well this season. Ex-Fylde striker Kurt Willoughby is a massive threat, alongside veteran thoroughbred Clayton Donaldson. When comparing strikers of that calibre with the attacking threat offered by Hereford, with the best will in the world there does seem to be something of a disparity, but Dan Smith is at least hitting a bit of form, with three goals in three games.
To make a tough assignment even tougher, the Bulls’ injury list grows longer, with Miles Storey a particularly worrying doubt here.
So, no real chance on paper, but unless the new ground has a paper pitch it’s 11v11 on grass, and as such the visitors have a puncher’s chance. Oh no, sorry, that’s Leamington. The visitors have, er, nothing to lose and a decent recent record up there from which to take heart and confidence.
COYW