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It’s a trip to the Yorkshire Riviera for Hereford FC this weekend, as they travel to Scarborough looking to build on what’s been a fruitful Christmas, albeit one that felt a bit deflated following the draw on New Year’s Day.
Famously inviting in early January, the North Sea may prove irresistible for a pre-match dip as it sounds like the squad is going up on Friday, freeing up Saturday morning for some invigorating salt-water therapy.
The home side have had a decent break following the Christmas fixtures, having sneakily played their new year match on 30 December rather than on New Year’s Day. In that game they won 1-0 at Darlington, who recently, along with seemingly most clubs in the division, jettisoned their manager (I can’t remember his name now). That was their fourth win in a row. Indeed, they’ve won seven of their last ten games so this really is a battle between two form sides. To make matters even more challenging, they’ve only lost once in 12 home matches, conceding just six goals. Not for the first time, an artificial surface seems to be giving its owner something of an edge.
This is the club’s second season in the National League North, having climbed up the pyramid as a phoenix club following the demise of Scarborough FC in 2007. The Seadogs enjoyed an impressive first NLN season, narrowly missing out on the play-offs as a result of scoring just two goals fewer over the season than Gloucester.
Striker Frank Mulhern from Farsley, and midfielder Alex Purver, supporters’ player of the season at Darlington last season, have proved to be smart summer signings.
The pace of midfielders Fin Barnes and Harry Green caused Darlo all manner of problems last week, and Green now has seven goals for the season. Centre back Kieran Weledji was man of the match though, and Jason Cowley will have his work cut out to get the better of the in-form Scot.
At the other end of the pitch, striker Aidan Rutledge is on loan from Gateshead, and has an impressive six goals for the Seadogs in eight games.
For Hereford, Lassana Mendes will be back following suspension, while Alex Babos will have to avoid doing anything daft as he’s currently on four yellow cards. One more equals a you-know-what. He’ll hopefully avoid having to play as a wide man in this one because that proved to be a bit daft last time, although it would have been harsh to yellow card him for it as he was only following orders. With Mendes returning on the right, the optimal shape of the side should return too, with the Bulls’ midfield magician returning to a central position where he can wave his wand in the hole, where it does most damage. If there’s something inadvertently disgusting about that last sentence I apologise.
Tom Pugh continues to grow in terms of his confidence, influence and desire to make things happen, and if anyone needed evidence of Paul Downing’s influence on this team, the few seconds he was off the pitch following Curtis Pond’s decision to punch him rather than the ball when Gloucester scored last week should be conclusive. Hopefully Curtis was made to write out a hundred times ‘Punching your best player is never a good idea’ at goalkeeping school this week.
Three genuinely classy goals saw Hereford come out 3-1 winners when these teams met at Edgar Street in late November, but Scarborough looked good throughout, particularly as they’d had to travel down for the evening fixture. If they’d taken their chances they wouldn’t have lost. That first game will have told Paul Caddis and Adam Rooney all they need to know though about how tough a challenge this will be.
Jordan Lyden should be available for this one according to Nathan Cameron, and given the amount of knocks the club captain has taken this season I’d take that as gospel. Through personal experience he should by now be fully medically qualified to comment on when another player is physically ready to return to the fray. Perhaps the ex-Villa playmaker will be eased in as a substitute given that a/ the pitch is made of plastic, and b/ he won’t be whole-match fit.
Andy Williams’ half-time withdrawal for a ‘tight calf’ on Monday seemed to be more precautionary than anything, and in fact he jogged off at half-time seemingly quite comfortably. He’ll presumably either play the hour here that he was supposed to play for against Gloucester, or revert to another 20-minute cameo at the end. Either way, you wouldn’t bet against him again creating or finishing off something in a very elegant, not typically National League North, manner. It was exquisite to see that he knew he’d scored before he’d even kicked the ball when grabbing the goal before half-time on New Year’s Day.
This match is properly tricky and will tell us an awful lot about how far the Bulls have progressed in recent months, and whether their away form has finally turned the corner and is ready to do its bit in contributing to the play-off push.
COYW