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Following a disappointing season last time, Chester have spent the summer wheeling and dealing, resulting in the arrival of some interesting signings.
Ex-York and Fylde centre forward Kurt Willoughby signed in July along with midfielder Alex Kenyon, who has lots of Football League experience with Morecambe, to be joined recently by another midfielder Danny Devine from Carlisle and defender Kieran Coates who was at Stoke.
The Seals surrendered a two-goal lead in their opening match of the season at Alfreton, before enjoying a very impressive looking 2-0 win at home to Brackley on Saturday. Given that Brackley aren’t known for gift-giving defensively, that looks a bit ominous given the somewhat familiar Bulls frailty at the back so far. Willoughby scored in that match and generally looked a threat, and ex-Kiddy Harrier Declan Weeks, contracted to Chester until 2024, controlled things in midfield for them.
Something else that looks ominous is a form line that takes in Brackley beating Scarborough before losing to Chester, and Hereford losing to Scarborough before this trip to play Chester. Things looking ominous this early in the season is really quite ominous. However, ‘they’ always say the table is meaningless until six or ten or forty games have been played, whatever it is, so it’s clearly far too early for laying the doom and gloom on too thickly.
There’s also Hereford’s recent form at the Deva to factor in as a positive. February’s 3-2 win up there was sweet, although it proved to be more or less the last highlight of a season that meandered away into nothingness. That win followed a 3-0 defeat at Kidderminster that felt every bit as deflating as Saturday’s loss at Scarborough, so there’s a positive potential parallel there in terms of bouncing back from misery. Possibly best not to mention the three games at the Deva before that, which resulted in 12 goals for the hosts.
Bit random this, but another potential reason for optimism is that last season Ryan McLean rarely went three games without finding himself clean through with defenders flailing helplessly in his wake, so by the law of averages his time has come for the first of those thrilling breaks. He just has to make sure he finds the net when it happens.
Saturday’s defeat was of course a bit of a kick in the teeth following the positive signs from the previous week, and Yan Klukowski as first sub in the second half, with the best will in the world, suggests that the required depth to the squad isn’t quite there yet. Excuses can be found, such as the fact that it was played on plastic and it was Scarborough’s first home match since promotion so they would have been up for it, but still. One of the more concerning aspects looking forward is that there was no blitzkrieg on the Scarborough goal after they scored, ie a full-blown attempt to rescue a point. With no shots on target in the second half it seemed to be a meek surrender. That never seems to happen the other way round, when opponents are chasing the game, a prime example being Spennymoor in the opening match, who pressed strongly and got their reward.
Hopefully it’ll be a wake-up call, the effects of which last for the rest of the season.
Having said that, I’d much rather be proud of a fallible team that tries to play the right way, rather than cringingly enduring watching a team whose first thought in absolutely any given situation is to con the ref. Berating the officials seems to be par for the course in the NLN as a way to claw your way up the table when sporting means alone aren’t enough. Scarborough, reportedly, have been quick to adopt that approach.
It's desperate, it’s rubbish, it’s embarrassing to witness, and I’m proud of Josh Gowling, Steve Burr and Hereford FC for resisting that approach to date. If it means finishing outside the play-offs as a result, so be it in my book. Some semblance of playing to the Corinthian spirit is vital, otherwise we’re Southport, and if we become that I’d rather watch paint dry.
Anyway, that’s quite enough soapbox hectoring from me, and a bit of good old-fashioned game management never goes amiss of course, but there’s game management and rank underhandedness, and the latter has become too prevalent for my liking.
This looks like a properly stiff test against a club that has, with those summer signings, signalled that it means business. Luke Haines is the only Bulls player to have scored from open play so far for Hereford, and that was in the wrong net. Things can only get better, can’t they? A decent result here and the season’s suddenly back on track and those positive vibes post-Spennymoor will return. Aaron Amadi-Holloway – your stage awaits.
COYW