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After about a million home games on the trot (OK, four, with the fifth postponed), Hereford FC finally have a National League North away game this weekend. That can only mean setting the satnav for Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham or some other frozen wasteland then, surely? Well, no, it’s soulless commuter wasteland instead this time in the form of Hertfordshire, and the snappily named Research and Development Advisors UK Stadium in Bishops Stortford.
This is a big one. A win here would begin to repair the Bulls very ropey away record and consolidate their position at the right end of the table. It’s also big because most other clubs have been filling their boots against the Blues so far this season, especially recently, so anything other than a win would feel like a missed opportunity. It would also be good, if this isn’t being too fussy, to see a dominant performance after a nothingy progression against South Park and a just-doing-enough scrap against nine-man Warrington.
It’s that time of the season when return fixtures are starting to be played, and back in September Hereford narrowly took the points against Saturday’s hosts with a 1-0 win at Edgar Street courtesy of a Yusifu Ceesay goal, so this could be the first of hopefully lots of doubles.
The Hertfordshire side, seemingly in the process of coming unstuck, not to say unravelling completely, have lost eight of their last ten games as they struggle to adapt to life in the National League North following promotion last season.
Their home record over the course of the season isn’t abysmal, having won four of ten games (drawing none), but barring a win against Buxton none of those successes came recently. Since that narrow loss at Edgar Street they’ve been on the end of some thumpings, conceding four, five (imagine that!) and even six goals in defeat.
Despite their travails in the league, they did dump higher-graded Ebbsfleet out of the Trophy last weekend, equalising in the 94th minute before scoring all five of their penalties in a shoot-out.
New signing Kane Crichlow scored on his debut in that game, having arrived last week from the second tier of the Greek Super League. I have no idea how super that tier is, but he didn’t set it alight enough to progress to the first tier of the Greek Super League. He is an inch or two shorter than Aurio Teixeira, which puts him into ‘jockey’ territory physically. Suffice to say he probably won’t enjoy it at Southport if they’ve still got to travel up there this season.
Following promotion last season, the Blues decided on a big squad overhaul, bringing 15 new players in. It’s an approach that doesn’t seem to have worked, and presumably didn’t do much for the momentum gained from the promotion.
Hereford have won just two of their 11 away games, which obviously leaves some room for improvement, or actually significant room for improvement. They’ve also only managed nine goals in those games, which again is a tick in the ‘could do better’ column. As surrounding clubs pick up points from their games in hand, the Bulls need a win here to keep pace and retain their play-off challenge. When rival clubs like Chorley are bringing the likes of Marco Rus in on loan to bolster their play-off push, Paul Caddis is going to need a full-strength squad to compete. The suggestion that Jordan Lyden may be back next weekend is therefore a big boost.
Failing to beat teams everyone else was beating was one of the more tiresome hallmarks of the Marc Richards/Josh Gowling years. In Paul Caddis, there seems to be infinitely more drive to rectify weaknesses rather than to constant repeat them. This represents an opportunity to start doing just that.
Caddis has an embarrassment of riches to choose from in central defence, with the big three of Downing, Cameron and Howkins seemingly and unusually all fit at the same time. Alex Babos will presumably return to an attacking midfield role after taking last weekend off, and this could be Aurio Teixeira’s one chance this season to be able to bully an opposition midfielder, as he towers over Kane Crichlow.
If an elusive away win can be achieved here things will be set up nicely for the triumvirate of Christmas games. The first of those sees Spennymoor visit Edgar Street next Saturday, which would normally be a challenge, but as mentioned above Jordan Lyden may be back for that one which could massively reduce the scale of that challenge, as could the fact that they’ve recently gone a bit wrong. Then it’s the two Gloucester games which are of course formalities, six points there no problem, and so as we move into 2024 the Bulls could be knee-deep in play-off consolidation territory, with Andy Williams starting up front.
It all very much starts here though. Seatbelts on because, let’s face it, it probably won’t be a smooth ride.
COYW