.png)
It’s worth noting that the Bulls have won nine of their last ten home games, with the solitary blemish on that record being the loss in the Cup to Gillingham. Admittedly I’m including Clee Hill in the ten, but nevertheless it’s truly impressive, and bodes well for this game.
I said a little while ago that bus legs play their part in the National League North, most notably when part-time players with actual proper jobs have to trek to the other side of the country on a Tuesday night. This is certainly prime bus legs territory, and should very much favour the hosts in that respect. Something else that would favour the hosts is a performance like that in the last home league game against Banbury, a game won 4-1 courtesy of an outstanding team effort.
On Saturday, the Seadogs were 3-0 up in half an hour against Bishops Stortford and went on to win 5-0. Impressive perhaps, but it’s important to remember that Bishops Stortford are finding life very difficult at this level and look like making their stay in the NLN a brief one. That was Boro’s third win on the bounce and it took them to within a point of the play-offs with two games in hand over the clubs in the lower play-off positions.
Midfielder Fin Barnes was man of the match for Boro in that big win, and is with the club on a three-month loan from York.
The club’s joint top scorer is attacking midfielder Harry Green, who made it five for the season in that thrashing of Bishops Stortford. He joins Frank Mulhern on that number, and the ex-Whitby youngster, who Boro paid a fee for in the summer, looks like a decent prospect.
Mulhern also arrived in summer, from Farsley, and the striker will be keen to score here having missed out on Saturday when everyone else was helping themselves. He’s one yellow card away from a suspension, which is no real surprise given that he’s not averse to ‘doing whatever it takes’, shall we say. A prime candidate for the Meadow End’s pantomime villain here.
The hosts are still to address their inability this season to match some hugely encouraging home performances with something similar away from Edgar Street. A solitary point from those last two away games leaves them in 13th place in the league, but still just three points off the play-offs. With Jordan Lyden and Andy Williams hopefully returning soon, that’s not a position to cause any undue alarm, but it’s a position that was occupied for large parts of last season too – just off the pace but lacking the consistency to leap into the play-offs and stay there.
That solitary point was gained from ‘a rubbish game of football’ in Paul Caddis’s own words, but rubbish or not it may well have been a game that would have been lost last season, so it was arguably a good point.
The Bulls now play four home games in a row in preparation for the big one they’re all talking about against Tenbury Wells in the Herefordshire Senior Cup, so an assessment of how the season’s panning out and where it might lead may be more meaningful after that lot.
Alex Babos will presumably regain his starting place here back on Ben Bowen’s manicured lawn, but the Hereford midfield will certainly have its work cut out to contain a lively looking Seadogs mid-section. Adam Livingstone and Aurio Teixera may also come back into the starting XI after sitting out the Farsley game, with Caddis deciding logically enough that they may not have been optimally suited to the hosts’ pitch and tactics.
Connor Stanley, Koby Arthur and Ethan Freemantle may be doubts here, although the latter did get through most of the game on Saturday despite being under the weather. There was still no sign of Nathan Cameron or Kyle Howkins at Farsley, so Ollie Southern may continue to deputise alongside silky-smooth captain Paul Downing.
Whether a loss and a draw coming into this match is sufficient to deliver another 2000-strong crowd for a Tuesday night game remains to be seen, and the Champions League is back as a distraction too, but it’s been good fun under the lights lately so hopefully the faithful keep the faith and create a good atmosphere again for what promises to be an entertaining game and a good advert for the National League North, as opposed to the Farsley game which was a good advert for walking the dog.
The visitors look to be a decent side with plenty of threat from their youngsters in midfield, and they’ll obviously come into this one full of confidence having won three in a row. Let’s hope they also come into it full of bus legs.
COYW