.png)
Some miseries would argue as an established fact that Hereford FC have found their level as a mid-table National League North club given the playing budget that’s available to be spent. On 2500 crowds that does seem crazy, but sanity and logic are skewed by sugar daddies at this level, the level above, the one below with Matlock et al, and right throughout football. If you don’t have one, you spend money you don’t have to compete with those who do. If you do have one and they get bored, you go bust. If you don’t have one and you spend money you don’t have to compete with those who do, you go bust. The other option is for your sugar daddy to get bored and as a result you end up being owned by a Chinese state-controlled bank (see Reading FC) which is a whole other level of mess. Well done football – this is where the race to the ethical bottom, fuelled by greed, arrogance and narcissism, is getting us.
Anyway, after that lengthy preamble, which I’ll somehow attempt to add relevance to in a sec, onto this week’s game, and it’s an almost-top-of-the-table clash. Given that it’s against Curzon Ashton that seems a bit bonkers - relatively recently they would have seen finishing fifth from bottom as a successful season. Now, finishing fifth from top would be a bit meh.
These days they’re solid play-off contenders and currently sit in third position in the still fledgling National League North table. Hereford are fourth despite recent injuries and plain bad officiating going against them. That suggests (and this is where I’ll try to squeeze the relevance of the preamble in), that the Bulls could well prove the miseries wrong, break free of the shackles of being a mid-table NLN club and actually finally get to compete in the play-offs this season.
OK, going on to then become competitive at a level up is a whole different thing, as Kidderminster and Boston would attest to, but one way of succeeding without bottomless pockets is to have a manager with the one-off genius of Brian Clough or Graham Turner (OK, two-off genius, but ‘two-off genius’ isn’t a thing is it?). Paul Caddis could yet prove to be a managerial three-off genius, and get the club promoted and consolidate in a division we used to think was slightly beneath us - ‘On Loan to the Conference’ t-shirts and all.
Alex Babos got through an hour and a bit on Saturday, and should start again here and be all the fitter for that comeback appearance. Yusifu Ceesay continues to suggest that a repeat of his at-times-unplayable form of last season is spluttering into life following a disrupted pre-season. Ahkeem Rose looks like he might be about to go on a goal spree, and Andy Williams will be keen to build on last week’s winner.
Given that the Buxton goal shouldn’t have counted last week, goalie Aaron Chapman and his defenders kept yet another clean sheet, and are starting to look like a formidable unit. Ryan Bartley slotted seamlessly into that unit last Saturday and looks to be the sort of loanee who’s worth having rather than someone brought in to make up the numbers.
There was quite a lot riding on last Saturday’s game at Buxton, because despite the Bulls proving to be difficult nuts to crack so far this season, they were tending to become draw specialists, and a loss would have caused some concern. However, they came back with the points despite the officials doing their best to again deny them the points, and now sit pretty in that fourth place in the table, still having lost only one all season but now with a nice shiny ‘W’ next to their name as the most recent result to avoid a ‘DDDD’ situation.
To add to the positivity, Sammy Robinson’s signing of a contract for the season this week was great news, with the defender’s contribution already being hugely significant, and not just defensively.
Curzon had last weekend off in terms of their NLN commitments as they were busy progressing to the first round of the FA Cup in knocking out Kings Lynn. Their last league game saw them beat Buxton 1-0 in the Peaks, so in terms of form lines this one could be close, and possibly low scoring, although form lines don’t account for Ahkeem looking like he’s got a goal spree in him.
They’ve only scored five goals in five home games so far this season, but they’ve also only conceded two, and no-one’s more defensively frugal than that apart from Farsley, who have conceded only one, but that’s down to the fact that they’ve only played one game at home so far.
New signing Luis Lacey got the goal that took the Nash into the next round of the Cup. The ex-Barnsley and Tranmere Liverpudlian could have earned himself a starting place with that contribution. Goal threats will come from Spanish midfielder Stefan Mols and centre forward Jimmy Spencer.
Another away win and the Bulliever herd will continue to grow at the expense of the miseries.
COYW