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Hereford FC will travel to Lancashire this weekend in buoyant mood as they face Chorley in the National League North, following a sparky performance and 3-0 win last Saturday in the seasonal opener against big-spending South Shields.
Chorley are usually tough and competitive at this level, and briefly threatened to finish as runners-up last season before ending up fourth. Their Victory Park home does have fortress tendencies, so this is another big test for the Bulls, but given that they passed last week’s with flying colours, hopes will be high the they can storm the fortress and park their tanks all over the Lancastrians’ lawn.
Evesham-born Magpies’ manager Andy Preece signed a contract extension on Wednesday, and has been busy over the summer overhauling his squad, trying to replace a couple of big-name departures, and in the process ending up with ten new players. Mo Touray has been signed as a striker, a player who had a loan spell at Hereford, scoring one goal in 18 appearances whilst at Edgar Street. He improved that strike rate at Warrington Rylands, scoring 22 in 46, but that was at a level lower.
Fellow new signings Sam Bird, Kole Hall and Jack Rice may be short on name but Preece will be hoping they’re long on potential. Bird is their long throw expert, Rice has to date spent his career in Devon and Cornwall so Lancashire’s quite a departure, and Hall is apparently a ‘strong, quick, powerful striker’, but not a notably prolific one.
Ex-Bull Harvey Smith is now a fixture for them at the back, and another club stalwart is club captain and goalkeeper Matt Urwin, approaching 300 appearances for the club.
Losing influential wide man Justin Johnson to the bright lights of Macclesfield and another key player Carlton Ubaezuonu to Scunthorpe in the summer could have hit them hard this season, and still could, but last weekend they started their campaign with a 1-0 win at Peterborough. Touray won it for the visitors, coming off the bench to score from the spot.
With Chorley a likely play-off rival, this could be described as a bit of a top-seven six-pointer if one was of the ‘easily carried away to flights of fancy’ persuasion. With only one game gone it’s a bit of a stretch to market it with too much razzmatazz, but nevertheless it will give a useful insight into the potential of the remoulded Hereford squad this season.
With Bulls fans more used to awaiting news of international clearance from the Welsh FA, it’s from sunnier climes that such news is awaited currently, with the Jamaican FA needing to give the nod to allow Akheem Rose to start his Hereford FC career. With Andy Williams and newcomer Montel Gibson both scoring and looking lively last week, Rose may have to take his chance from the bench here if indeed he’s eligible to play by then.
Of the other new players, Aaron Chapman, Sammy Robinson, Tate Campbell and Matt Preston all looked last week like they’ll contribute significantly this season to another huge step forward for the club. In addition to those players, I don’t know where Paul Caddis found that winger from who scored the third goal, but he looks to have some potential too.
A quick word too on Kyle Howkins, who I thought was majestic last Saturday. More of the same here from the big centre back and the Chorley attack will find things tricky.
Aaron Skinner should be fit for this one, although possibly a precautionary bench-sitter initially as he comes back from injury.
Chay Tilt and Cosmos Matwasa reportedly ran into each other in training, resulting in both being missing last week. Running into Cosmos Matwasa and not breaking every bone in your body in doing so is some feat, so credit to Chay for minimising the self-harm, and hopefully it won’t delay his Bulls debut too much. This, and several games to follow, will be too soon for Jason Cowley however.
This fixture last season saw one of the better performances of a campaign full of improvement, as the Bulls won 2-1 with a clever tactical display featuring a feverish press and the sort of team togetherness that was such a hallmark of so much that was good about last season. That spirit, judging by last weekend, has if anything been enhanced by the newcomers.
Finally, and regarding the season generally, this new five subs rule strikes me as a timewasters’ charter, as if they needed any more encouragement, and will prove to be infuriating at times at Edgar Street this season, especially if the refs don’t add every second lost to it at the end.
Actually that’s a bit of a grumbly way to end, so with Chorley possibly not as strong as they used to be it’ll be another win here, six points on the board and top of the table by tea time.
COYW