Hopefully it’s safe to come out from behind the sofa after last weekend now, because it’s Hereford FC vs York City at Edgar Street on Saturday.
Last weekend was of course utterly, irredeemably awful, undoubtedly one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen. The Southport players, who made Kings Lynn look like a really nice bunch of guys, refereed a game they were active participants in to an extent that was as weird as it was tinpot. They realised early on that there was nothing to stop them doing so, and they did it. OK, it’s a horrible and cynical approach, but it could and should have been nipped in the bud with some nous from the Hereford team or bench. That team and bench were bullied, completely and utterly, at home, and that was very naïve. The actual referee presumably came down on the Southport coach as a mascot, one of those stuffed ones they put in the front windscreen.
However, that’s not to suggest that any of that is an excuse for a terrible performance from Hereford, utterly lacking in anything positive. Krystian Pearce and Ryan Lloyd were missing, but at least they’re in the squad. Two dangerous strikers are not, and haven’t been all season really. 4-4-2 may be a bit old-fashioned, but no-one at all up front is very easy to defend against.
To attempt to match a long-throw team with your own long throws, to the extent that the ‘sport’ on display no longer actually resembles football but something too boring even for the Winter Olympics is a shame, and won’t bring people flocking back for this York game, especially when you’re nowhere near as good at long-throw-non-football as the opposition. That said, the player responsible for the Hereford long throws was probably the only one to come out of Saturday as a plus point. A Haines-Pinchard-Kouhyar midfield is something to base a team around for next season maybe, if the latter is still around.
Anyway, York at home. On the basis of the last two games it could be as embarrassing as it is depressing. Can Krystian Pearce’s return from suspension make that much difference? Has the dropping of Brandon Hall caused the players to down tools?
Talking of dangerous strikers, Lenell John-Lewis returns to Edgar Street as a York player, on loan from Grimsby. He scored in midweek (along with Hereford’s Mitch Hancox, also on loan at York and as such ineligible to play in this one) as the Minstermen impressively made minstermeat of high-flying Fylde at Fylde, to overtake Hereford and move into the final play-off spot, pushing the Bulls out of the frame, deservedly so really on the basis of recent performances.
York have won their last five, whereas Hereford have lost three of their last four. That recent run could result in a decent away following making the trip. City are keen advocates of that high press everyone raves about these days, and are favouring a formation with The Shop as a lone as well as loan striker, a one-stop Shop, and Karl Willoughby, no mug by any means, as an impact sub.
It feels like a long time ago now, but Hereford utterly dominated the first half against Guiseley at Edgar Street recently, like a side who had absolutely got this division sussed and sewn up. On current evidence, that perhaps says more about Guiseley than it does about Hereford. Now, suddenly, it looks like the Bulls have no goals in them, and a blunted cutting edge. They look, to use Josh Gowling’s word, leggy.
York will comfortably win this if they pick the 11 most horrible people in their squad, and if that 11 combine being horrible with being 6’ 4” all the better. If they’re good at refereeing the referee in an intimidating way that’s a plus too. Hereford, apparently, have no answer to this sort of caveman contribution to the beautiful game. However, it is to be hoped that Saturday’s visitors have more about them than Southport in terms of moral fibre and some sort of adherence to even attempting to play football. That gives the hosts a squeak, but it also gives York a degree of respectability Southport distinctly lack.
There’s a core of players at Hereford easily good enough to compete next season if those two strikers can be unearthed from somewhere to join them. Currently, it looks like a finish of mid-table respectability is the most likely outcome from 2021/22, which in itself is progress, and hopes will be high for 2022/23 if that core of players can be persuaded to stay on, and Gowling’s summer shopping list features a few rough diamonds who can bring a bit more consistency and resilience to the party.
There, that dismissive paragraph should be enough to ensure that the club now win all their remaining games this season and beat Southport in the play-off final. I’d love that.
COYW