From Sinners To Saints

Following a midweek match-up with the far from saintly Alfreton Town, Hereford FC travel to Brackley on Saturday to play the in-form Saints.

That point on Tuesday means that five wins from the remaining seven games would almost certainly earn a play-off place. Four wins would possibly be enough to scrape seventh place, especially with a few draws thrown in. Three wins wouldn’t be enough unless all the other games are drawn, in which case it’s possible, but then if only three are won it wouldn’t really be merited anyway. The best course of action is to just win all seven, starting with this one.

In terms of their record in the play-offs over the last few seasons, one team you wouldn’t mind coming up against at that stage is Saturday’s opponents. However, in actual standard league games it’s a different matter, hence the fact that they qualify for the play-offs every season, before admittedly losing.

The hosts have been flying of late, and have charged up to fourth place having only lost two of their last ten games. They’ve got a nice little points gap to Chester in fifth, but will be keen to push on to ensure a home match in the play-offs (not that it’ll do them any good of course).

Ex-Sloppie defender and Telford boss Gavin Cowan is now in charge, and after ten months at the helm, during which time they didn’t quite catch fire initially, he now seems well on top of the brief at St James Park. He’s been rewarded recently with a contract extension covering next season.

Seemingly regardless of who’s in charge, Brackley tend to win games 1-0. Such is the extent of that tendency that they’ve scored fewer goals at home than second bottom Gloucester. At the other end of the pitch, they don’t let pub league goals in. Ever. As sad as it is to say it, Hereford of course do occasionally, and if they do so again here they won’t win.

Bucking the 1-0 trend, Brackley went nuts on Tuesday in doubling their par score, winning 2-0 at freefalling Rushall.

Striker Dan Turner joined in the summer for an undisclosed fee from Leamington, with a big season anticipated from him. It hasn’t really worked out that way though, and he’s in an out of the side. Instead, it’s Danny Newton who’s getting the goals for the Saints, with 15 to date. The ex-Stevenage striker was Cowan’s first signing, and has proved to be a shrewd one.

Ex-Chorley goal-getter Connor Hall plays alongside Newton, having arrived on loan from Solihull after Christmas. He typically goal-gets at a rate of one every two games at this level. However, having scored a hat-trick on his debut, he’s gone a bit quiet lately.

Ex-Bull Zac Lilly, a player Cowan knows well from their time at Telford together, is a regular starter and has even pitched in with three goals. Bulls fans will be hoping for one or two of the lapses in concentration that affected him as a Hereford player sometimes, in among some accomplished performances.

The hugely influential Shepherd Murombedzi returns here after a two-game ban, and Tommy O’Sullivan, much maligned in some quarters when he was with Hereford, has cemented a place in the Brackley starting line-up.

Curtis Pond will hopefully have the confidence to use his physical presence to come out and claim George Carline’s long throws before they bounce or find a Brackley head, thus removing any pinbally chaos from the equation. He needs to ensure that he’s as menacing in his own area as he is in the opposition’s.

Yusifu Ceesay went off very late on Tuesday with a twinge in his knee, but if he does start I hope the left winger has a gigantic breakfast before sunrise as he’ll be fasting from then until kick-off due to Ramadan. I can’t recall that ever being a consideration with Paul Parry.

It sounds like this game will come too soon for Tope Obadeyi to make a comeback from his broken toe-enforced absence, although with Jid Okeke on one side and Ceesay on the other there’s plenty of threat on both attacking flanks.

This is a game crying out for the assured presence of Jordan Lyden in midfield for the Bulls, but since going off recently with yet another fitness setback, it seems unlikely he’ll be ready to start this one.

In November, the Bulls beat the Saints 1-0 courtesy of a Yusifu Ceesay goal in a game the Bulls were tactically brilliant in, with Jason Cowley selflessly running his legs down to stumps to ensure that Brackley were never comfortable in possession. They’ll need to be similarly smart here.

Hereford have won just two of the ten games these sides have contested, and have never come away from St James Park with so much as a point. All that will need to change to keep those play-off aspirations realistic rather than becoming a gradually diminishing long-shot.

COYW