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Peterborough Sports are the visitors first up, and fans will be hoping that last season’s abject 1-0 defeat in this fixture will be avenged, getting the club back to winning ways and giving them the chance of picking up six points in three days, rather than the zero points in three days the 2022/23 squad managed against Banbury and Gloucester this time last year.
That pair of defeats rather set the tone for the rest of the season, so a complete swing in outcomes could hopefully do the same this season in a much happier way.
Jason Cowley could again only manage a portion of the 90 minutes at Blyth as he struggles for full fitness, but again showed that his contribution-per-minutes-played is considerable. It’s a shame he can’t be brought on for five-minute bursts at regular intervals throughout the game. Regrettably, his ankle injury means it doesn't look like he'll be participating in the bank holiday matches.
In this fixture last season Josh Gowling somewhat radically seemed to employ a formation that didn’t include anyone playing up front. Given Paul Caddis’s limited options due to injury, he’s not far off having to do the same, but you get the feeling Adam Rooney will have a strike partner here in some shape or form, although possibly not Stanley Obinna.
The bad luck with injuries continues too, with Mark Derricott possibly out for three months, a real blow to him and the club in what was looking to be his breakthrough season.
Something encouraging to take from the defeat at Blyth last weekend was the fact that an equaliser seemed at least possible at 2-1. There were many, many matches last season where recovery from a losing position looked hugely unlikely even if they’d played for 900 minutes (which is something that may well happen this season with this new thing the refs are doing).
Saturday’s guests have flown up the pyramid with successive promotions between 2015/16 and 2021/22. Suspicions that the big, bad National League North would find them out looked to be misplaced as they started last season with a bang, before understandably fading a little as the season progressed (or dragged on in Hereford’s case). Nevertheless they still finished two points and two places above Hereford, and never really faced any threat of relegation. All this, despite losing manager Jimmy Dean and star winger Dion Semble Ferris to Scunthorpe halfway through the season.
Another small club has come up to join them this season in Rushall, and given that Olympic comprehensively outplayed the home team at Edgar Street recently there will be no complacency here, either in Paul Caddis’s prep or among supporters, as bold claims about where the Bulls might finish this season are starting to be ever so slightly recalibrated.
Peterborough started this season strongly, following up a pre-season local derby slaying of big brothers United with a win over Scarborough followed by a draw at Scunthorpe, making them the only club to get anything out of the Iron so far this season. They’ve since gone on to lose their last two, against awkward Alfreton and high-flying Spennymoor, so given the opposition those losses don’t necessarily indicate any sort of handy terminal decline just in time for this match.
Incidentally Ben Pollock was described as ‘brilliant’ for Spennymoor in that match on Saturday – good to hear, smashing lad.
Ex-Bull Jordan Nicholson should start here for Sports and could make life uncomfortable for the Bulls defence now that he’s back to full fitness after an injury-blighted season last time, and veteran Michael Gash spends most of his time co-managing the club now rather than playing, but he could make an appearance off the bench. Lanky midfielder Hugh Alban-Jones moonlights as a coach at The Posh, appropriately enough with a name like that, but, fun fact, he was born in Hereford. It was logical then that his first senior club was Westfields. Oh no it wasn’t sorry, it was Novelda CF in southern Spain – go figure.
Ben Fowkes will be the visitors’ most likely goal-getter. A striker brought in over the summer from Leiston who, like Jason Cowley, has been reasonably prolific at the level below, he’s found the net once this season so far.
A front-foot, bossy performance here would give supporters a shot of optimism nitro to boost levels back up to where they were at the start of the season, and a win would give the players a shot of momentum nitro for the shortish trip to Tamworth. It would also add a few decibels to the volume generated by what should be a sizeable travelling black and white army at The Lamb.
Very early days of course and the wheels certainly haven’t come off, but the nuts could perhaps do with a bit of retightening here courtesy of the first thoroughly convincing performance of the season. There’s also a 100% win record at home to protect. This looks like a very good opportunity to bolster any emerging possibility that Edgar Street could finally qualify as a bit of a fortress at National League North level.
COYW