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| Maziar Kouhyar Equalises For Hereford |
Son of Eric reports from Edgar Street.
On a bright, sunny day 1982 came out to see Hereford greet about 150 Minstermen. A disappointing away turn out for one of the bigger teams in the division in hot form. Hereford brought back Hall in goal, and also skipper with Hodgkiss still out with Gillela continuing to deputise. Pearce came back from suspension with Egan dropping to the bench. Pollock and Revan remaining first choice defensive picks. In front of the fence were Haines and Vincent, with McLean coming back into the team to help Owen-Evans and Kouhyar make the chances for Storey up front. Touray dropped to the bench, Pinchard, Patten, and new loan striker Faal completing the substitutes. Sondergaard dropping out of the squad. York lined up 4-4-2 but both sides were quite fluid, and Vincent pushed up more than in recent games. At times Hereford almost matched up the 4-4-2 of York.
Hereford were first to threaten with a quick pass almost finding McLean on the right, but keeper Jameson came out and claimed the ball. York responded and had slightly more of the game. Neither side was quite able to penetrate. From a short corner Haines headed back across the goalmouth only for old favourite John-Lewis to head clear. The big man showing his skills when almost at the touchline on the right side he hit a bouncing ball with a slight slice and what could have been a cross became a curling shot from an acute angle which only just went over.
Haines was seeing plenty of the ball and surging forwards hit a vicious long shot which Jameson was pleased to tip around the post for a corner.
From the corner the ball was partly cleared but when Kouhyar won the ball about 35 yards out on the right he hit a curling swirling shot which bounced off the top of the crossbar with Jameson seemingly beaten.
Pollock clashed heads with a York player and was groggy having to have his head bandaged up with a lengthy delay. Haines was also caught a couple of times and seemed to be troubled and went down. However, he got up and ran off the knocks.
As the game went into five minutes of added time York broke the deadline. Skipper McLaughlin found space on the right about thirty yards out. He dinked a cross over to the far side of the penalty area. John-Lewis pulled off Pearce to the left side of the box. He met the cross as sweetly as possible cushioning a delicate header into the only danger zone. There was a square yard of space between Hall advancing and between Pearce and Pollock but that is precisely where the best striker to ever play for Hereford FC put it. Woods anticipated and breaking into the box stabbed the ball home moments before Hall, Pollock or Pearce would have cleared it. Beautiful clever football.
At half time fans were a little underwhelmed with York as the form team in the division after six straight victories with an especially impressive win at Fylde in midweek. However, they were without hotshot Hancox who had seven goals in the last five games. As one fan wryly noted this may have been Mitch’s most effective game for Hereford!
York pressed hard and had that eager confidence which we saw when Hereford were on a winning roll, but their cutting edge did not match their play in deeper positions. Both sides seemed better at stopping the other side putting together passing movements than creating fluid football. It was an entertaining half as the bitter breeze over the Yazor brook got stronger. York started the second half better, but their final ball thankfully remained below par. Hereford played through Storey and as he was about to break free, he was tactically fouled by Wright. Wright knew exactly what he was doing as it was wide enough and with enough other defenders that it was a yellow not a red.
Hereford were struggling to create, and McLean had been mostly quiet. He was replaced by Pinchard. York took off MacKay and brought on Willoughby. Hereford then took off Haines who had not looked his normal self after his two heavy knocks in the first half, giving Mo Faal his debut. Hereford made their third substitution in under ten minutes bringing Patten on for Vincent as they tried to equalise. Faal made an immediate impact coming deep to win a ball, then winning the first of multiple aerial duels. Mo is an awkward looking footballer a slightly more graceful Peter Crouch. He is gangly but his relatively slight build is surprisingly strong, and he soon had York defenders bouncing off him. He also showed a sharp burst of pace on a couple of occasions. As Hereford had the option of the long ball to the big man up front the game opened up. Sometimes Faal did not win his challenges cleanly with a couple of successful tussles seeing the ball bounce off his shoulder or neck rather than his head, but he posed all sorts of problems and created the sort of opportunities which Kouhyar and Owen-Evans thrive on.
York took off scorer Woods and brought on Brown. Patten’s fresh legs made an impact and he fired over from distance as Hereford looked likely to score and York seemed more concerned at hanging on to what they had. Tom was finding space and some clever passes were almost opening York up. One went through into the box and almost found Pearce tussling with John-Lewis. In a tight spot in the six-yard box Lennell fell over and referee Scholes who mostly had a good game fell for the fall. As he jogged back Pearce tapped John-Lewis on the shoulder and complimented his fellow veteran on his theatrics in a respectful manner. It says much about how improved Pollock is that John-Lewis spent more time trying to exploit Pearce’s channel. Bandaged up around his head Ben looked a warrior and you can see why he is leading in the vote for February player of the month. If he can improve his defensive heading to the level of a Grimes, then bigger clubs will be calling soon.
Owen-Evans crossed, Pearce met it and Duckworth cleared off the line as the Bulls continued to dominate. It was no surprise that it was good work from Tom which saw a pass open up space for Maz. Last week he could not score from the penalty spot. This week on the edge of the penalty box arc he immediately rifled a low drive into the side netting on the left-hand side beating Jameson all ends up.
The Meadow End roared for a second goal, but Hereford could not quite manage it with Tom scooping a chance and Patten shooting over.
This was a much-improved performance by Hereford but still not back to their best. York’s confidence and energy earned them a point. Kouhyar, Owen-Evans and Pollock all had good games but Faal is a real find by Gowling. There was a moment when he took the ball down and surged into space inviting a shot but passed out right which showed control, pace, and vision. He was a handful who utterly changed the character of the game. Mo offers a very different challenge to defenders. Having seen Hereford struggle to score in so many games I wonder whether they would have cut through in this game without Mo changing the momentum of the game. Although it was only a half hour cameo Faal would be my man of the match.
A big thank you to the many wonderful volunteers with familiar faces who collected for the Disasters Emergency Fund in Ukraine with £1500 raised and many more Bulls fans donating online so that Gift Aid could be added: Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal | Disasters Emergency Committee (dec.org.uk)