Bulls return from the Wye Valley with three points

Kane Thompson-Sommers Scored for Hereford

Harwood Bull watched Hereford win at Buxton yesterday. Here's his report.

Wye Valley? what’s he talking about? Well, Buxton also sits on a river Wye, although at only 22 miles long it’s just a little stream compared to our river. As for the other part of the headline, a hard working performance by the Bulls, who played most of the game without an out and out striker saw them come away from Buxton with three points courtesy of a confidently struck penalty by Kane Thompson-Sommers. 

Buxton’s ground is allegedly the highest in England, and it certainly felt like it, both from the steep walk up from the town, and the sub zero temperature that the game was played in. Couldn’t even get a cup of Bovril to ward off the cold. It’s a small, neat ground with, according to Wikipedia, a capacity of 4,000, so the 680 in attendance were spread fairly thinly. It has an artificial surface which seemed to me to play better than the one at Scarborough, but I still don’t like them. 

With Luke Haines suspended AAH was in central defence again, alongside Pendley. Andoh & Evans were the right and left backs. These four were in front of Dino Visser in goal who looked very comfortable all game. Four in midfield were Hanson, Lloyd, Thompson-Sommers and Pinchard. Barnett was feeling the effects of an ankle injury from the Pegasus game so Storey was up front with the latest loan signing Dan Jarvis supporting him. I’m not getting involved with the formation debate regarding 4-2-3-1 or diamond as I frankly couldn’t figure out what it was. At times it looked like 4-4- 2, sometimes 4-2-2-2 and all variations around that. 

Storey Gets His Head On A Lloyd Cross

The first few minutes consisted of aimless high balls and poorly directed headers before the game settled down. Both teams had attempts on goal – Storey heading wide from a Jarvis cross but from an offside position, then Brisley’s looping header hit the bar, but had it been a bit lower I feel Visser had it covered. Incidentally why do commentators talk such nonsense as “thwarted by the woodwork” when the truth is he missed narrowly. The crossbar didn’t move to block the attempt. Buxton had a couple of shots on target but nothing that troubled Visser. Both he and the home keeper were in all-red kit, so it might have been interesting had one or other of them gone up for a corner at the end of the game. Wonder what the ref would have made of that. 

Was This The Challenge That Forced Storey To Be Subbed?

The Bulls had to reorganise when Storey went off with an apparent hamstring injury to be replaced by Ryan Maclean. This left Hereford with two small midfielders playing up front and no recognised striker. Jarvis had an excellent game and looked to be one of Gowling’s better signings but the Bulls were never going to win much in the air from that point on. 

In the 39th minute there was a collision between Visser and Boden as the Hereford keeper came out to gather the ball. Dino was unhurt but Boden required attention for several minutes before being stretchered off. That plus the injury to Storey resulted in time added on of World Cup proportions, 10 minutes in total. 

Hereford continued to create some good attacking moves with Jarvis at the heart of most of them, but lacked the cutting edge needed to capitalise on them.

Levi Andoh With A Shot

Half Time: Buxton 0 Hereford FC 0

The Bulls were more positive in the second half, with good runs from Jarvis, Pinchard and then Evans marauding down the left flank before cutting inside to shoot wide. Visser had to make a couple of saves, with Pendley having to complete the clearance on one occasion, and then Elliot wasted an opportunity for the home side, shooting well wide from a good position. 

The Bulls’ breakthrough came in the 55th minute when KTS played a neat chip over the home defence to Jarvis who controlled it well and in taking it round the keeper gave him every chance to bring him down. The keeper duly obliged and the ref pointed to the spot. 

There were few complaints from Buxton and KTS stepped up to put the penalty away for a 1-0 lead. 

On 65 minutes Evans brought down Elliot but it was fortunately just outside the box. Evans got a yellow card but the resulting free kick was an absolute stinker, very high and very wide, so the Bulls got off fairly lightly. The Bulls were beginning to control the game more and looked fairly solid and mostly composed in defence. Pendley is a real physical presence at the back and Amadi-Holloway very comfortable alongside him. Lloyd was doing what he does well, unspectacular but breaking up attacks and using the ball well. 

McLean's Shot Goes Over

On 78 minutes Jarvis, a definite contender for man of the match, went off to be replaced by Holmes who had a couple of good runs. Buxton mounted a final onslaught which was dealt with fairly comfortably by the Hereford defence. The Bulls had a late chance to double their lead, Maclean making a strong forward run, playing a one-two with Holmes and hitting a powerful shot which the Buxton keeper did well to save. That was the end of the action. 

Full Time: Buxton 0 Hereford FC 1 

Hereford: Visser, Evans, Thompson-Sommers, Lloyd, Amadi-Holloway, Pinchard, Storey (McLean 29), Hanson, Pendley, Jarvis (Holmes 78), Andoh Subs: Lilly, Derricott, Osment 

Buxton: Richardson, Moult, Granite, Meikle, Elliott, Poole, Brisley, Osbourne, Jackson, Bunn, Boden Subs: Kirby, De Girolamo, Bacon, Windass, Ackroy 

Overall a good performance, securing 3 points having played for most of the game without a recognised striker. Actually they did have one but he was playing centre back. It would be good to see his skills employed up front more often, but he does such good job as a defender it’s hard to know where best to use him. As ever, the concern is the amount of good interpassing we produce without threatening the opposition goal. We’re now back in a mid-table position but this was a narrow win against a struggling team. 

If Storey has ”done his hammy” he could be out for while and if Barnett’s ankle doesn’t recover we will continue to be very lightweight up front. It is slightly baffling how, given how many players we’ve had in the squad, we can be so short of cover in key positions. If a play off position is to be a realistic ambition the Bulls need to find a consistent attacking threat from somewhere.