Winter Olympic

Hereford FC will look to return to winning ways on Tuesday with a shortish trip to Rushall Olympic, having recorded a loss and a draw in their last two league games, temporarily slowing the club’s headlong rush to a promotion that some believe could be a poisoned chalice. I’m idiotically romantic and not at all realistic so I think a promotion would be great. I also believe Hereford will one day be bypassed, allowing Edgar Street to become a pedestrianised kind of Ramblas of the Marches, like what Newmarket Street was made to look like in the artist’s impression the council commissioned before magically transforming Newmarket Street into a slightly slower version of Newmarket Street. That’s how unrealistic I am, so what do I know?

Right, I didn’t expect the opening paragraph to go in that direction, so let’s get back to the matter at hand…

Saturday was very odd. From a state of purring satisfaction at half-time following a degree of superiority from the Bulls that I can seldom remember seeing before at this level, to screeching frustration at the final whistle. It’s hard to know what to read into that in relation to this game, but surely a similar performance will give the visitors every chance of coming away with the points, and be very good to watch at the same time.

It’s a funny old game of course, and whilst Saturday’s match was somehow not won when it absolutely should have been, the game at Edgar Street between these two sides in mid-August somehow was won when it absolutely shouldn’t have been, so I suppose these things balance out. The newly promoted Olympians somehow left Herefordshire empty handed that evening following a 1-0 win for the hosts in a game the visitors very much had the best of.

Olympic are competing at this level for the first time in their history after beating now sadly defunct Nuneaton on penalties in the Southern Prem Central play-off final last season. Striker Danny Waldron scored freely for Alvechurch last season, and was rewarded with a return to the Pics in the summer having previously spent three seasons with them. He’s a player who has consistently done well at the step below, but it didn’t work out for him at National League North level when he had a spell at Leamington. Not working out well at Leamington is arguably to any decent player’s credit, and his latest stab at NLN football has gone spectacularly well. His 16 goals for a side in 17th position, and one of the smaller clubs in the division, is outstanding, and he’ll lap up any chances resulting from the sort of Hereford defending in evidence for the Kings Lynn goals on Saturday. That defending was sloppy, but it was admirable of Paul Caddis not to admit publicly how sloppy it was. Privately I assume he ranted at length Glaswegianly, and you wouldn’t want to be on the end of a lengthy Glaswegian rant. Whether it did much good if only Adam Livingstone was able to understand it remains to be seen.

Rushall are settling into life at this level quite nicely, having won three of their last five games. They had last weekend off because of the weather, but prior to that they recently beat South Shields, Spennymoor and Chester.

Unlike other plastic merchants, their form at home on 3G, 4G (or however many Gs their pitch is) isn’t conspicuously brilliant, as they’ve lost more than they’ve won at Dales Lane.

The Bulls’ away form hasn’t been great so far this season, but a win here could take them up to the fourth position that they should really have been in going into this game following the win-that-wasn’t against Kings Lynn. They follow this match with a trip to Darlington, who have won only once in 14 attempts at home this season, so recent dropped points could soon become a distant memory for a Bulls side that’s almost, but not quite, seemingly very good.

Aurio Teixiera’s first half performance on Saturday and general commitment to the cause are to be applauded, but if he could just rein in the going-down-like-he’s-been-shot-when-he-hasn’t-really thing that would be good. I freely admit that it’s probably me being hopelessly old-fashioned in finding that a bit much, and certainly all opponents always do it, so maybe I should just wake up and smell the simulation.

Fellow midfielder Jordan Lyden will miss this one with a twisted ankle, and Jason Cowley continues his suspension.

The excitement of this side going forward owes much to the two wide players, with newcomer Tope Obadeyi looking like a really good signing, offering more proof that Paul Caddis knows what he’s doing. A 34-year-old who can’t get a game at Banbury wouldn’t be an obvious must-have on too many managerial shopping lists after all. There seems to be a fair chance the wingers will cause the Rushall full-backs plenty of problems here, and hopefully go further than that and unleash total mayhem.

Someone else who goes from strength to strength is Tom Pugh, my man of the match on Saturday. Another wonder strike here would be smashing, but a ricochet in off his nose from a yard out would be equally gratefully received, and arguably more of those sort of goals to put games to bed are just what’s needed.

Something like that first half on Saturday for an hour or so here will surely be rewarded with three points. That sort of quality can’t fail to deliver wins too often at this level, as long as some row Z defending is thrown into the mix when needed too.

COYW