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Next Game: Banbury Away On Friday March 29th Kick-Off 3.00pm

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Bulls Hit Four At Farsley

Touray Scores Hereford's Third Goal

Harwood Bull watched a well-deserved victory for Hereford at Farsley Celtic this afternoon. Afterwards he admitted he couldn't remember when he last saw The Bulls score four goals. And he's been watching them for over 50 years.

Here's his report:

Four goals and three points, and up to 9th place in the National League North. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? The Bull were good value for their win, but Farsley Celtic played their part in an open and entertaining game, and certainly didn’t look like a team only one place off the bottom of the table.

The Hereford starting line up was unsurprisingly the same as the one that produced the fine win over Kiddy on Tuesday night. It says something for how young the back four is, that Ben Pollock is viewed as the experienced old hand organising them. I’ve been impressed with him every time I’ve seen him play – his effort, commitment and concentration never seems to waver. In the first game of this season, at home against today’s opponents he was still adjusting to his central defensive role and was up against two big bruisers who were seemingly on a mission to bully him out of the game but he stood up to them and held his own. No such troubles today.

Hereford started with Gordon up the middle, McLean wide left and Kouhyar on the right, although not quite so far advanced as McLean. TOE roamed around just behind the front three, with Lloyd and Vincent holding the middle. Vincent is starting to look like the player we hoped he might be, controlling midfield and steadying the ship when required.

The first quarter of an hour was fairly scrappy with both sides having half chances. Hereford’s first real opportunity came on 15 minutes when Gordon surged into the box despite having his shirt pulled and worked the ball to McLean whose high shot was a comfortable save for the home keeper. 





Then a defensive error gave Gordon a shooting chance but the ball was blocked and his follow up effort was an easy save.


The encouraging sign was that the Bulls were getting plenty of shots on target and it seemed only a matter of time before they scored. Then McLean weaved his way into the penalty area, coming in from the right flank this time, and baffled the defence and the Farsley keeper with some feints and stepovers before scoring with a low shot inside the near post.






The Bulls were dominating the play, and with no threat coming down his flank, left back Seb Revan was able to push up and showed a lot of pace and good crossing ability, and linked well with McLean. 


TOE is in a good run of form at the moment and linked up attacking moves well, but did seem to have trouble keeping his feet at times.

Having said all that, Farsley finished the half quite strongly and came close to equalising on a couple of occasions, once when Vincent headed just over his own crossbar, and once when a corner flashed across the Hereford goal with no Farsley player able to apply the touch it needed at the far post.

Half time Farsley Celtic 0 Hereford FC 1

The second half started with Hodgkiss on for Gillela, Hodgkiss reclaiming the captain’s armband from Brandon Hall. Hodgkiss was soon barking orders and geeing everyone up. He tightened up the defence on that side which was where the home team had been getting most success in the first half. However Gillela was seen limping around the pitch shortly after so we must assume that he was subbed for injury reasons. Mustn’t we?

The game was still fairly open with he Bulls having the better of things, although it did get fairly frantic at times. As long as it remained at 1-0 there was always the worry that Farsley could get back into it, probably from a dead ball opportunity. On 58 minutes Storey came on for McLean which I found surprising, as the number seven had played well. However Storey provides a different type of attacking threat, with pace and power rather than trickery, and the second goal came from a low cross from him towards Gordon. The ball broke to Owen-Evans who scored with a fine shot which went in off the post.





After 67 minutes Gordon came off to be replaced by new loan signing Mo Touray. He showed some good touches and got the third goal as the game went into the time added on. The move started deep in Hereford’s half with the ball played down the left for Revan. He outpaced the Farsley defence before crossing low for Touray who controlled well, turned his marker and finished coolly. 






And then, with almost the last kick of the game, Miles Storey made it four with a simple finish when put through one-on-one with the keeper.





Full time Farsley Celtic 0 Hereford FC 4

A fine result, with little to complain about. Admittedly Farsley Celtic are a team in free fall at the moment as far as results go but they didn’t look such a bad side, and made the Bulls work hard for everything. It was pleasing to see so many shots on target and chances being created.

The dressing room at Edgar Street must have a revolving door at the moment, with players joining as fast as they are leaving. The latest crop of newcomers are doing a good job so far. Egan in the centre of defence was good in the air, strong in the challenge and positionally aware. Revan looked good going forward, but didn’t have lot of defending to do. Touray did enough in his brief cameo and good striker’s finish to suggest he’ll strengthen the squad.

On to Chorley next week which will be a tougher test, but one the Bulls can approach with confidence.

Hereford lineup:

Hereford: Hall, Egan, McLean (Storey), Kouhyar, Owen-Evans, Gordon (Touray), Lloyd, Pollock, Vincent, Revan, Gillela (Hodgkiss).

Subs not used: Forsyth, Klukowski