.png)
OK, sorry, unforgivably clickbaity title. However, the west Yorkshire version do come down to Edgar Street on Saturday, as Hereford FC entertain Farsley, in the first of three games they could do with banking maximum points in. A visit to Oxfordshire follows this one against a Banbury side looking to be in some disarray, followed by Buxton at home, but then the run-in is tough as it includes games at Scunthorpe and at home to Boston.
So, a draw’s no good here, which should hopefully result in wave after wave of gung-ho attacking football from the hosts, against a Farsley side who have been doing their best recently to play themselves into relegation bother. There’s nothing to lose really at this point. Well, there’s a football match to lose I suppose, but there’s no point taking an edgy approach – might as well go for broke and leave an element of it in the lap of the gods. That’s my considered opinion.
The Celts have lost four of their last five, and no-one in the division, not even Bishops Stortford, have scored fewer goals than them away from home this season.
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 were making a decent fist this season of becoming a blob side though, until the wheels fell off recently. They’re also one of the few sides in the division the Bulls aren’t dwarfed by in terms of playing budget, or so it seems if the likes of Buxton can pay Adam Livingstone more than Hereford could.
If that’s the case, it reinforces yet again just how well the squad has done this season to be up in the top half among clubs with bigger budgets (which seems to be virtually ALL other clubs in the top half). It also highlights just how much money National League North sugar daddies are losing in subsidising their playthings each season, when those playthings attract a quarter of the gate receipts enjoyed by Hereford FC.
Last Saturday a Kelsey Mooney hat-trick saw Boston beat the Celts 3-0, and gave the ex-Hereford striker, not notably prolific in his career to date, a strike rate of seven goals in, er, two games.
At 40 years of age, player manager Clayton Donaldson missed the home game against Hereford earlier in the season with an injury that kept him out of a handful of matches, but other than that he’s been not far off ever-present, playing 34 games and generally not seeing any need to substitute himself. It’s either hugely impressive that he can still walk the walk when many others at that age are getting ready to literally walk the walk in resorting to walking football, or he’s abusing his position as manager to keep more capable young whippersnappers at his disposal rotting on the bench. Three goals in those 34 matches suggest the latter, but I’m sure that’s not the case.
Saturday’s managers played together at Birmingham. Indeed regular Blues penalty taker Paul Caddis stepped aside once to allow Donaldson to score from the spot to complete a hat-trick. More evidence of the class of the Scot, and perhaps cause for Clayton to nod an OG in here as payback, several years later.
Midfielder Ben Atkinson is the Celts top scorer with eight goals. At the other end of the pitch, goalie Zan-Luk Leban is genuinely intriguing. The 21-year-old Slovenian is on Everton’s books, has played internationally in all the age groups up to under-21 level, and had a trial with Barcelona. Now I know that every pub in England seemingly has at least one old soak who had trials with Manchester United at some point, but in this case the Barca thing is true as it’s written on Wikipedia, so it must be. He should be pretty good, which is a bit irritating.
Worryingly, Hereford’s injury list is growing again, with influential players potentially missing here. Ceesay, Downing and Lyden could all be absent, but Tope Obadeyi could be fit enough to start. It sounds like the tactic may be to get the ball out to young Jid Okeke at the earliest opportunity, and if he has a couple of players marking him there will be more space for the likes of Alex Babos and Tope to work some magic in acres of space.
The 0-0 draw these teams played out in November was rubbish, according to Paul Caddis. Judging by recent comments he’d be happy for this one to be rubbish too, just as long as it ends 1-0 to the home team. Supporters wouldn’t be complaining too much with that scenario either, but wave after wave of gung-ho attacking football AND a win would be better.
This and then Banbury are dream fixtures given the form of the opponents, and you can’t look a gifthorse in the mouth. If they’re not both won, the play-offs were possibly a season too soon for the squad anyway. If they are both won, it’s all on again. Just doing my bit there to reinforce the reputation football supporters have for fickleness.
This will hopefully be ticked off with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of points, before Alex Babos runs the show with a man of the match performance against his old club on Good Friday.
Back to winning ways here – no other outcome is conceivable.
COYW