Well, looking on the bright side no-one seems to want to make the last National League North play-off spot their own this season, and as a result Hereford FC’s lacklustre 1-1 draw with Darlington on Saturday saw them rise two places to ninth in the table, an escalation completely unwarranted by the performance.
Looking on the murkier side, and this might take a bit longer to describe (and admittedly even the last bit of the bright side paragraph above was quite murky), the Bulls’ form (three points from five games) is the worst of the clubs scratching around purporting to be good enough to warrant a play-off place.
In this current rut, the Bulls are getting out-bullied by the bullies and out-footballed by the footballers (and real credit here to Darlington for coming down and playing some very nice stuff, not remotely interested in intimidating the referee, and just generally behaving like a civilised football club trying to play the right way).
And so to Kettering on Tuesday night, and the opportunity to finally put this rotten run to bed and actually take advantage of the fact that no-one’s grasping the nettle and running away with seventh place. Hereford eased to a 3-0 win when these clubs met at Edgar Street in November, when everything looked like it was starting to click very agreeably. A repeat performance here would be a/ surprising, and b/ just what’s needed to lift spirits and trigger one last effort, rather than just meekly playing out the rest of the season.
One of the things that’s unfairly going against the Bulls this season (apart from the opposition being either too physical (Southport) or too good at football (Darlington)) has been bumpy pitches. Tuesday’s hosts will no doubt be contouring any accidentally smooth bits of the Latimer Park surface that they spot between now and Tuesday evening to ensure that the match is ruined as a spectacle. In fairness to Steve Burr, he has made it clear that the state of the pitch shouldn’t be an excuse. It’s also been suggested that the heat might have been a factor on Saturday. Firstly, it was about 15 degrees absolute max, and secondly it’s always about -10 in Darlington, so the relative balminess should have affected them far more than the home side. The problem really seems to be that there’s not much hunger in evidence; most of that seems to come from the opposition. There are exceptions, notably Luke Haines, Tom Owen Evans and of course Ben Pollock, but there seems to be a general acceptance that mid-table is an improvement and that’s enough.
Ryan McLean made a big difference when he came on last Saturday, and remains a player with the tools in his box to terrify NLN defenders. He may have to hurdle the pitch as well as the tackles, but surely he warrants a start here, perhaps in place of Miles Storey, whose own toolbox seems to have gone a bit rusty in the winter.
Kettering, like Hereford, were very well placed not so long ago but are now, after three straight losses, at the bottom of the group of clubs queuing up to be best at messing up qualifying for the play-offs. Admittedly they’re on the same points as Leamington, but the latter don’t count, are beneath contempt and don’t warrant a mention here. Oh whoops.
The Poppies sit four places and four points below Hereford, with two games in hand. That recent run of losses comprised away defeats to Boston, Spennymoor and struggling Chester, who thumped them 4-0 on Saturday.
14-goal striker Callum Powell left for Southend in January, and since then Kettering haven’t really replaced his goals. January saw the club also lose their manager Paul Cox, who saw a brighter future for himself and his bank balance at Boston.
It seems a shame that this will probably be a factor, but I’m duty bound to report that Kettering have a long-throw expert in Rhys Sharpe, so it could be tactically astute to foul him in the arms early in the game. It’s undoubtedly a good time to play them though, as they’re plagued by injuries and suspensions, and couldn’t fill their bench at Chester.
So, after being thoroughly out-footballed at home by Darlington on the back of some bang-average performances and results before that, the Bulls are somehow still in the mix going into this game, but it’s a very cloggy, cloying, coagulated mix of stodge, that mid-table group who are all seemingly simultaneously bottling it. From now on there’s no point doing anything other than throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best with some devil-may-care attacking football. It could actually result in some entertainment.
If whoever emerges from the stodge to qualify for the play-offs somehow goes on to win them (and to be honest anyone would fancy their chances against a totally shot Kidderminster at the moment), they would then have to figure out how to jump from being no great shakes in the NLN to being somehow competitive in the division above in three months. It’s difficult currently to see how Hereford could make that work. I wouldn’t turn promotion down, but another season to iron things out in the NLN would probably be the sensible call, and the better longer-term outcome. However, on current form, that’s all completely irrelevant anyway – promotion’s a pipe dream and everything’s gone pretty flat, unlike the Poppies’ pitch.
Anyway, Ryan Lloyd’s back soon.
COYW