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Whilst the Bulls are in the process of making Edgar Street a difficult place for visiting sides to come to, their away form could be improved as part of the club’s two-steps-forward-one-step-back progress up the table. Defeat at Buxton in midweek to a fairly bog-standard NLN-by-numbers Buxton side was a reminder that the club’s transformation into a feared opponent at this level isn’t quite complete yet.
A hallmark of the team this season has been its ability to bounce back from setbacks with winning performances, and Farsley’s home record makes this a good opportunity to do so again.
This Celtic don’t have a huge amount in common with the version Paul Caddis is more familiar with, and their Citadel ground won’t be too reminiscent of Parkhead when he arrives there.
Midfielder Ben Atkinson is the Celts top scorer with five goals, which is five more than his brother Chris. I should clarify that Chris also plays for Farsley, he’s not a milkman in Leeds which would mean that him scoring no goals for the club this season wouldn’t really be a surprise or worth mentioning here. Unpleasant striker Frank Mulhern left in the summer, but will be appearing at Edgar Street on Tuesday with Scarborough, so that will be nice.
New signing Jack Evans thankfully isn’t that Jack Evans, and Bubba Krubally has a pleasingly good name.
Farsley are one of the few sides who don't usually feature in the giant blob of mediocrity in the middle of the table as they're too busy battling against relegation. They’re making a decent fist this season of becoming a blob side though.
The hosts, like the majority of NLN clubs, crashed out of the Trophy last weekend, losing 4-2 at home to Radcliffe. However, they did recently do what Hereford couldn’t do and win at Buxton, and they beat Boston at home. The latter was their only win at home in nine games this season though. On Tuesday they held high-flying Spennymoor to a 0-0 draw at The Citadel, a game that could make Saturday’s playing surface a little more agricultural than if they’d played away. That point took them to within a point of Hereford in mid-table, and stretched their unbeaten run in the league to four games. They were reportedly without eight first-team players for that match, but I fell for all that before the Buxton game and being injury-hit didn’t seem to affect them as much as it apparently needed to for Hereford to actually win the game. Celtic were described as ‘leggy’ on Tuesday, so that’s promising.
Old warhorse Clayton Donaldson is the club’s player manager, and at 39 has picked himself for almost every league game this season. He has only managed one goal though, and is currently out with an ankle injury. He was at Birmingham with Caddis so the bantzometer will be off the scale in the technical area.
Last season the Bulls lost this fixture 1-0, which was the final nail in the coffin of Josh Gowling’s tenure as head coach. If that’s what it took for fate to deliver Paul Caddis to Hereford FC in a roundabout way, it was a very welcome 1-0 defeat, although it didn’t feel like it at the time.
Kyle Howkins and Nathan Cameron were missing on Tuesday at Buxton, which coincided with the concession of two avoidable goals. Whether that was coincidence or not, it would be reassuring for one or both of them to be back alongside Paul Downing here.
At the other end of the pitch, it might be time for Adam Rooney to have a bit of a rest and make way for Ethan Freemantle to partner Jason Cowley, with the assistant manager an option off the bench in the second half perhaps to steady the ship and manage the ref if the ship needs steadying and the ref needs managing.
Conditions won’t be optimal for Alex Babos or Yusifu Ceesay, but both are nevertheless capable of producing a bit of much-needed magic out of the blue.
The Bulls are still well in touch with the divisional front runners as supporters keenly await the return of Andy Williams and Jordan Lyden from injury, and if that’s still the case when they do come back things will be looking promising, but for that to be the case three points here would be useful.
Something else to consider, whether or not Willo and Lyden are involved by then, is that potentially no other club in the division will have a more winnable pair of Christmas games than the Bulls. It’s not nice to gloat when a club’s really struggling as Gloucester are, but those matches on current form really should be put to bed with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of points.
However, that’s still a little way off. The pitch on Saturday will be challenging and the crowd will be modest in number, but hopefully Caddis will be able to motivate the squad yet again, despite the humble surroundings, to react to the Buxton defeat with a bit of a ‘gung-ho from the get-go’ performance.
COYW