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The Tigers spent the summer fine-tuning their Hereford tribute act in signing ex-Bulls Kennedy Digie and Brandon Hall, and then taking Jamie Egan on loan. They join Tommy O’Sullivan and Danny Leadbitter to comprise a significant Edgar Street old boys contingent. Tommy O has played like he has something to prove in the games against Hereford since he left Edgar Street, and much of their more creative play flows through him. Up front, Matt McClure’s still with the club, but after an amazing goalscoring purple patch a couple of years back, he’s since struggled for fitness. However, ominously he looks to be back in form, and is riding high in the National League North goalscoring charts this season so far with four goals. Tre Mitford was brought in from Brackley over the summer to play alongside McClure, but has yet to get off the mark.
Incidentally, Brandon seems to be one of four goalies at the club, which seems a bit unnecessary.
Gloucester have been a model of inconsistency so far, beating Boston but somehow managing to lose to Blyth. If the latter version of the team turns up this could be delightfully one-sided. On Saturday they lost at home to slow-starting Brackley, with some of the more printable post-match comments from supporters suggesting "City were hopeless", or simply "Awful". All very encouraging, as long as there isn’t a backlash. With both teams coming into this one on the back of defeats, gate receipts might not be quite what the Edgar Street bean counters were hoping for.
For Hereford, just as hopes were rising for a good season built on consistent performances and results, some of those fears about the fallibility of the Bulls defence have returned. Cut open repeatedly by a fairly straightforward pacy counter-attacking approach, it wasn’t much good really against Banbury. And as with the Scarborough loss, there was little attacking cutting edge to get back into the game. The start to the season now suggests that it could be similar to the last one, trying to sneak into the play-offs rather than being a team others are fearful of. Still early days though of course.
That said, there are signs that at home at least the fear factor could play a part. Something akin to the performances at home so far against Spennymoor and Buxton should give the hosts every chance of getting back on track here against what looks to be a fairly limited Gloucester side.
It would be good to start seeing more evidence that Aaron Amadi-Holloway might be too good for this division, and someone possibly needs to have a word with his spin doctor (do they have those as well as agents?) after the Hereford Times quoted him as saying: “I can’t wait to play with Tyrone. Stick two brutes up top and just kick it long and see what happens.” I know his CV is blighted by time spent just up the A49, but still. That’s not quite how we do things down here AAH. If he’s still not quite fit there could be an awful lot more to come as the season unfolds of course – an exciting prospect.
After Millsing pub teams into utter submission during the club’s formative years, everything went a bit stale for Hereford FC, not helped by some bewilderingly amateurish decision-making by the primus inter pares decision makers at this self-described fans-led club. And there was Covid of course. This season was beginning to feel different and more professional before the Banbury blip, a feeling articulated by a buoyant Jon Hale when the chairman spoke publicly last week. Could that professional feeling be the precursor to a move to something more than just a feeling? A move to something that enables the club to compete on a level playing field with the likes of Dorking Wanderers? Playing Dorking is the stuff of dreams I know, but why not dream big? Wealdstone, Maidenhead…the list of dreaminess goes on when you consider the next step up.
It’s not going to happen while your level is to get done fairly comprehensively by Banbury, but it's Alfreton, Farsley and that slow-starting Brackley next, before the FA Cup comes knocking again. There looks potentially to be some low-hanging fruit among that lot in terms of cropping lots of juicy points to get things back on track.
Anyway, to the matter at hand - 2-1, three points, biggish crowd, all good. Just a shame the momentum was wiped out beforehand. We should be used to it of course as Hereford supporters. If you want the consistency that spending big gets you, you could support Boston I suppose. Oh.
COYW