Olympic Game

Narrow margins, that’s what this game’s all about (and, er, kicking a football around), and if it wasn’t for Curtis Pond Hereford could well have started the season with no points. Paul Caddis understandably cites Adam Rooney as his most important signing, but it’s the new goalkeeper who is arguably most responsible for the decent start from the Bulls. It was smashing to see Curtis rewarded so early in the season with a contract over the weekend.

What a first managerial job Caddis has found himself, managing a club that can comfortably still attract 3000+ masochists in the sixth tier of English football, hard-bitten folk who can sense a cultural change at Edgar Street after several years of often unwatchable dross touted as a commercially viable product, going right back to the sacking of Peter Beadle. For a bit of context, Cheltenham in League 1 only attracted a handful more home fans to their match with Bolton. It’s obviously a bit depressing to be several divisions below them, but reassuring to know that on that evidence we’re still the bigger club. Now may be the time to insist that they remove their academies from the south of our county, and to demand that the blue and amber lot from Bayston Hill do the same in the north. 

Crucially, the new gaffer seems the type to relish the challenge of wrangling a big old lumbering rusty beast into a sleek, mean and keen promotion machine, rather than easing himself in as a manager at a smaller club in front of three people and a dog. 

The new squad faltered at times against Darlington on Saturday, but look at the bigger picture: these players were strangers to one another not too long ago, and overall at the weekend they just about looked the better side, against a club who have beaten Hereford more or less whenever they feel like it since the Bulls’ promotion to the National League North. As we move into autumn that collection of strangers will rapidly become more of a collective force, and as such should have a good deal more scope for improvement than Darlington, a club that will probably be at least top half by the end of the season.

Anyway, after that inexcusably lengthy preamble, I’m supposed to be talking about Tuesday night, so…

If this squad is as good as it’s starting to promise to be, this is a match the hosts should dominate and win at a canter. That might be asking too much for a brand new squad that’s still going to need time to gel, so ‘just’ another win would do fine for now – the 5-0 win-at-a-canter can come in the revenge match at Blyth next Saturday.

Rushall will presumably set up in a way that suggests a draw would suit them, and that sort of set up so often proved to be enough last season to cause the Bulls to very quicky run out of ideas and for the opposition to end up winning rather than drawing and looking completely baffled by the end at how easy it had all been.

Olympic are competing at this level for the first time in their history after beating Nuneaton on penalties in the Southern Prem Central play-off final last season. They lost on the opening day at home to Farsley in front of 394 people, but got off the mark on Saturday with a draw at Curzon Ashton, who had comfortably beaten Darlington on the opening day. Striker Danny Waldron got their goal in that draw, having scored freely for Alvechurch last season. He returned to the Pics in the summer having previously spent three seasons with them. He’s a player who has consistently done well at the step below, but it didn’t work out for him at National League North level when he had a spell at Leamington. Anyone wanting to play football rather than cheat their way to a 0-0 draw wouldn’t find life easy at Leamington, so perhaps not working out there is to his credit.

What should be the biggest midweek Edgar Street gate for some time could inspire one of the National League North’s smaller clubs, or it could intimidate them. Hopefully it’ll be the latter.

If this Hereford squad can’t pass the ball into the net, it looks quite prepared to attempt something less subtle to get the win. That could be handy here. Nathan Cameron, for example, scored one in six for Kidderminster, so if total football doesn’t work, set pieces and corners might. His fellow central defender Kyle Howkins doesn’t have a history of contributing in the same way, but he is, to quote his ex-manager Dave Hockaday: "A lot of a monster, never mind a bit of a monster...he's a big daft, galloot! He's got great height, he's a great athlete, he's big, he's strong he's up for the fight." I’m not totally sure what a galloot is, but every dressing room should have one, and Kyle’s going to be some asset if he can stay fit.

If the Bulls are going to be one of the few consistent sides in the division this season, and historically there always seem to be only a handful that sit above the huge blob of mediocrity, this is the sort of game that needs to be won with the minimum of fuss. I think it will be, with Teixera and Babos doing a passable impression of Iniesta and Xavi pulling the strings in midfield, and the whole group starting to realise that they might actually be quite good together.

COYW

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