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“It’ll be different at Aggborough” - Samson ‘Sammy’ Robinson, Hereford FC, April 2025.
Hereford FC make the short trip to Worcestershire on Easter Monday, backed by a large travelling contingent, as they lock horns with neighbours Kidderminster in a local derby with season-defining repercussions dripping from it for both clubs.
It might be an idea to have pinned up in the away dressing room the observation above from Sammy Robinson, when he commented on the Boxing Day game between these clubs.
The direction that game took could have been very different had Tate Campbell’s dipping rasper gone in to equalise rather than hit the bar, but that’s a very, very optimistic take on what was frankly an awful day at the office for the Bulls and a hugely impressive display from Harriers.
It looked at that point like Kiddy would go on to win the league by ten points or more, so it was somewhat baffling when they immediately afterwards had some sort of mid-season implosion, losing all over the place and briefly dropping out of the play-off positions. It prompted manager Phil Brown to launch a slanderous public attack on his own players, players who play football professionally and therefore have professional reputations to protect, accusing them of deliberately chucking games to banish him from the club. All very odd. If it was some sort of elaborate ploy it worked as they’ve been on a great run for the last few months.
In a scrappy game on Friday, they edged past Rushall 2-1 in front of 1,000 of their own travelling supporters. Ashley Hemmings got his 33rd goal of the season in that one, which is none too shabby.
As usual there will be players on both sides who have played for the other club. Preston, Cowley, White, Robinson, Ceesay, Sterling-James, McNally, Downing, Kouhyar and Obadeyi all fit into that category, and I may have forgotten one or two.
I imagine Paul Caddis will be dugout based for this one despite his red card on Saturday, as his consignment to the stands won’t kick in yet, and anyway an appeal may be pending. I’m probably wrong about that though, as I usually am with suspension-related things. Regardless of where he watches the game, he’s got a big decision to make on whether fit-again Sammy Robinson comes in to start. He may understandably be reluctant to change a winning formula, and a place on the bench looks far more likely.
Several players go into this one in very good form, notably Tate Campbell, Jaiden White and captain Lewis Hudson, and as I said before the Leamington game Jaiden may just use the added motivation of a game against his old club to do something very special. It’s a bit unfair to pick out individuals though as the squad generally is timing its best seasonal form perfectly, and if that upward trajectory continues the final two games, as tricky as they are, could quite conceivably yield the points needed to guarantee a bit of play-off fun, regardless of what other clubs do.
These clubs seem to be poles apart financially, with Hereford’s slightly higher gate receipts used as a means to run the club sustainably, whereas Harriers presumably have non-turnstile-based ‘shareholder investment’ income streams that afford them their professional status in tier 6.
In that context, the Bulls have done so well this season to be within a few places of their neighbours in the league, and actually not just in that context - in any other given context this squad has been one the fans can be so proud of.
In the context of this game, the form Hereford bring into it has taken the pressure off slightly given that not winning wouldn’t end the season thanks to the 13 points earned from the last five games. A win would push them closer to a home game in the first round of play-offs (and be very nice too), but a draw wouldn’t be the end of the world by any means. A loss isn’t something to be considered here, and anyway I honestly think an upset could be on the cards.
Contrastingly, for Harriers it’s a powder keg of pressure, and that could play into the hands of the visitors. The hosts realistically have to win to ensure that winning the league at the weekend is in their own hands. To still be in must-win territory seems a bit harsh on them given that they go into this having won ten of their last 12 games, which by any yardstick is scintillating form, encapsulated on an individual level by Hemmings scoring 15 over the course of those games, including three hat-tricks, but that’s the way of things when you’re trying to get promoted as champions, you have to win every game.
It’s to be hoped that they’ll have to work harder in attempting to win this game than they have in any other all season, and certainly harder than they did in the match between these two at Christmas.
Boxing Day though was just ‘one of those’. It'll be different at Aggborough, as a wise man recently said.
COYW