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| Yusifu Ceesay Scored The Only Goal Of The Game |
Bishops Stortford 0 Hereford FC 1
Andy Wood reports:
Strange times we live in. National League North with Hereford at 52 Degrees North away at Stortford at 51:86 Degrees North. Sometimes its those small margins that count and today our extra .04 degrees of Dirty Northernness was enough to see off a spirited second half from The Mitremen.
Stortford came up from the Isthmian Premiership at the end of last season and fought a legal battle to stop this game being played. Nothing personal against us, but they wanted to play in the Conference South rather than have an average 340 mile away trip every other week in the Conference North.
We kind of know how they feel. When Hereford FC was formed the London Bulls was a thing but now, after a few seasons in the Conference North all that remains is a few enamel badges as its hard to keep the Cockney Whites on side with Brackley, and until this season a Tuesday night in Kettering with the smell of the Weetabix Factory, as the only nearish lure for City Slickers.
So a good turn out from the London fans for our nearest league game in some years. That 9-0 in Dagenham a distant memory, mostly remembered by Tony Roberts when it wakes him at 4:13 every morning.
A nice set up at Stortford with cover on four sides at the R & D Stadium.
On the field a lot of Research & Development as Hereford had the better of the early exchanges. On five minutes Cowley should’ve done better with a clear header from six yards where he appeared to lose sight of the goal.Then Southern headed over from a corner (Incidentally if you ever wondered what happened to Ryan Green’s sunbed I think Ollie Southern is helping West Mercia with their enquiries).
For the home side Harry Beadle (really no relation) entered the book for making an impression on Alex Babos.
In the first half Stortfords’ threat came from the wind assisted long ball to the wings and the attacking nous of number 10 Darren Foxley. A period of Stortford pressure led to Pond punching the ball against his own post on the third of a quick series of corners.
The Bishops boys should have done better when a long throw from Beadle found Foxley in space and he flicked his shot across the goalmouth.
On 31 minutes Hereford created the first move of real quality with Pugh surging through after good interplay from Babos and Ceesay from a long Pond clearance.
A minute later, with the Bishops on the backfoot, Ceesay got on the good foot with a cut in and shot from the edge of the box. Babos's run across the line of the shot appeared to stultify Stortford and Hereford took the lead.
The goal marked a turning point in the game as Hereford were no longer trying to match Stortfords’ wind-assisted Route Zero approach (impossible anyway with the wind against us) and focussed more on trying to use Ceesay’s speed and Cowley’s willingness to chase down everything.
As half time approached the ref booked one of Stortfords’ mouthy bench.
HT 0-1
Playing with the wind in the second half Hereford couldn’t resist going Route Zero as their hosts had done in the first half. Pond launched a blitzkreig of long balls which went above the floodlights and had first bounce on the edge of the Bishops’ box. Nice trick if you can do it but as well as attracting complaints from Air Traffic Control at nearby Stanstead this kind of Pondlife football doesn’t get us much #Caddisfaction.
Stortford playing against the wind, started playing the kind of shortball game that brought our goal in the first half. Despite some good interchanges the masterful Downing - along with Cameron and Skinner had too many smarts for the young Boy Bishops frontline.
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| Was Cowley Brought Down - Pugh Thought He Was |
The game ended with Hereford winding down the clock in the Stortford half. Cowley would have grabbed a late second if he could have got a touch on a Tex cross. Freemantle came on for Cowley and picked up Jason’s high tempo approach. Howkins came on for the tiring Babos.
So Hereford up to fourth. Not the tonking that we might have expected to hand out to those Southern softies but a wins a win when you’re the hardest thing from the north to come out of the south.
NG Woodbuoy