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It’s Buxton at Edgar Street on Monday, with Hereford FC perfectly placed to ‘do a Kidderminster’ in rocking up to the play-off party late and beating everyone, before ‘not doing a Kidderminster’ and staying in the fifth tier next season.
For a plastic pitch outfit, Buxton are surprisingly not reliant on home form to keep them afloat. They’ve won nine games away this season and only South Shields have scored more goals on their travels. They don’t tend to draw either. This may be a must-win for the Bulls, but it’s undoubtedly going to be significantly tougher than the Farsley must-win.
However…
The visitors have recently hit a bit of a dip in form, losing three of their last four games, and they got thrashed 4-1 at home to Chester on Friday, when Hereford were taking an enforced day off. That dip leaves them with precisely nothing to play for here and for the rest of the season, which should play into the hands of the hosts, who still have lots to play for in attempting to ‘do a Kidderminster’.
Also, Bucks manager Craig Elliott recently announced he’d be leaving at the end of the season, giving rise to potential further indifference from the opposition on Monday. Elliott gave an honest assessment of the Chester defeat, saying that the Seals wanted it more. Hereford have to ensure that they want it more too all over the pitch, and given the relative positions of these two sides it should be a given that the players in the white shirts are more motivated than the ones in…er, whatever colour shirts Buxton play away in. It seems to often be pink in the National League North, or something designed by a primary school art class.
Striker Ben Andreucci, on loan from Bolton, was the stand-out player for Buxton in the Chester game, scoring their goal and proving to be a constant threat. Chester enjoyed a lot of success in that game down their right-hand side, which may suggest that ex-Bull Adam Livingstone had a bit of a torrid time for his new club. There was plenty to like about the Scot while he was at Edgar Street but he was never totally solid defensively. He’ll love dealing with Jid Okeke.
Much-travelled striker Jake Wright, always good for a goal or two at this level, has been a bit-part player so far this season, but has started recently. He averages a yellow card every other game though, which won’t have helped his club’s cause – silly narna. His newly formed partnership with Andreucci has been described as ‘potent’, so potent as to have delivered one point in the last four games.
Diego de Girolamo scores a goal every other game when fit, but has been on the bench for the last two games. He’s their top scorer with 13 goals, and recently played his 200th game for the club.
Defender Max Hunt has experience higher up with our old friends Aldershot and Yeovil, and has weighed in with a couple of goals this season.
Midfielder Sam Osborne is a very useful player at this level, but hasn’t been playing recently. I’m not entirely sure why not.
Results elsewhere again didn’t go Hereford’s way on Good Friday, and four wins from the last five games are needed to be in the play-off mix. I’m increasingly thinking that the person who thought 70 points would be enough (was it the Chester manager?) forgot that this season consists of 46 games, not 42, but it seems unlikely that you could make that mistake if you’re an NLN manager.
Buxton finished a point short of the play-offs in their first NLN season last time, and 12 points above Hereford. However, that won’t be the case this time, as they’re currently seven points behind the Bulls having played a game more. If we were to surmise that they’ve stood still in terms of their progress, it suggests that Hereford are the best part of 20 points better off under Caddis than they were last season, and this is his first season in management, managing a brand new squad who started the season more or less as strangers to one another.
With players of the calibre of Alex Babos signing on for next season to give some continuity for once, that rate of progress should ramp up to put rocket boosters under a proper promotion push next season, if the club just falls short this time. It feels like things are finally being done in a professional way, a way that befits a club that attracts 2500 to each home game.
Tope Obadeyi will be available for this one and looks to be in very good nick, and the Banbury postponement has allowed Yusifu Ceesay another couple of days to recover from his sore knee. If Caddis can find a formation that accommodates those two, Okeke and an Alex Babos presumably full of oomph having signed on for next season, there’s more creativity there than in a primary school art class.
When you dig down into the nitty-gritty, Buxton look to be in the same sort of state of flux that Banbury are in, and whilst, with certain exceptions, you don’t like to see that at another club, there’s plenty to like here about the prospects for a home win with, dare I say it, a few goals too. A 20-0 victory would be ideal in terms of play-off goal difference, and would be a good watch.
But with regard to the play-offs and moving on up, given that Shrewsbury seemingly need to burn through what is essentially a £3m-a-year subsidy from some mug to allow them to continue as a struggling League 1 outfit, what, actually, are we looking to get promoted into? A toxic world of debt?
The doolally Premier League trickle-down effect is going to destroy football as it’s been known in this country for a hundred years, and everyone – clubs, fans, FA (sigh), government (bigger sigh) are sleepwalking into it. To paraphrase M&S: there’s greed-induced insanity, and there’s football-world greed-induced insanity. Thanks Rupert.
Having said that, I’m not sure how many more winter evening matches versus Alfreton and everything they represent I can cope with. I’d possibly give £3m to avoid another one if I had it.
Happy Easter everyone.
COYW