In the mire and outside the shire

It’s a match-up at Sixways, Worcester on Tuesday night between two National League North clubs who are more potentially EFLish in terms of their fanbases and ancestry than most other NLN sides. Potential counts for nothing though when cold hard reality comes knocking at your door and you get totally done over by the likes of Telford, as both these sides have this season.

In November, when they last met, a heartbreaking 96^th-minute Chester equaliser denied Hereford a rare win, and that game was one of several this season in which the Bulls have done an awful lot right but not come away with the points. That’s not to excuse the many other occasions when an awful lot has been done wrong, resulting similarly in not coming away with the points.

Chester’s own patchiness has resulted in manager Calum McIntyre calling time on his leadership of the side (or having it called for him) when his contract expires at the end of this season, as the Seals look to benefit from a gradual transition to his replacement over the summer. This despite sitting just outside the play-offs.

Declan Weeks, so often the player who makes them tick from his central midfield position, didn’t play at the weekend, so may not start here. He’s had a quiet season by his standards. Dylan Mottram-Henry knows the division well after time spent with South Shields and Buxton. He’s their joint top scorer with seven goals, demonstrating that, like Hereford, their league position is at least partly down to not having a prolific poacher in their side. Their big-money (well £12,500) summer signing Connor Woods got that late goal in November, but has played very few full games this season, contributing a reasonably modest seven goals.

The most notable mention in terms of players is a certain Jaiden White, who arrived at the club on loan earlier in the month, after failing to quite hit the standards he achieved for Hereford last season when he returned to Edgar Street on loan during the winter. He’s made a couple of cameo appearances so far, but like Declan Weeks he wasn’t in the squad at the weekend.

On Saturday Chester did what they had to at Leamington in easing to a 2-0 victory against the bottom club. That leaves them four points behind Macclesfield in the final play-off place, although Macc have played a whopping five fewer games. It’ll be a tall order for Chester to participate in the play-offs at the end of the season, but they’re close enough to ensure that they’ll be doing everything they can to win this.

Hereford will be hoping that Sixways is once again lucky for them, after that late penalty against Darlington last Tuesday. The loss against Scarborough since then isn’t the sort of thing they can afford to do any longer, and their form is worse than the seven sides above them who could be described as fellow relegation candidates. The Bulls are therefore gradually moving further from safety as the season progresses, rather than hauling themselves up and out of trouble.

Until a goalscorer is found it’s difficult to see how that will change, but back-to-back wins would paint a significantly rosier picture by 5pm on Saturday. Unfortunately that’s not something the side has managed, at all, this season. If they can somehow scramble a win here, Alfreton away on Saturday then becomes huge, with a Whites victory there probably seeing them leapfrog the Derbyshire side in the table. Conversely, a pair of draws (so to speak) or worse in the next two games would make things look very, very ominous.

A new player will be coming in before this game according to Aaron Downes. Not a striker, but presumably someone who can add some quality. A commanding centre back? A midfield general? Maybe he could just stand up front and pretend to be a striker and hope that his quality results in a hat-trick. Ooooh, hat-tricks, remember when they were briefly fashionable among Hereford players a few months ago?

Lawson Dath encouragingly is now back from injury and will be available to play some part here. As one of the few players still at the club to have had a good season, his presence has been missed, as has his ability to chip in with goals. If captain and left back Lewis Hudson continues to be relied on as the club’s main goal threat, relegation will be a certainty. Gus Mafuta will also be back for this having missed Saturday.

Last weekend that relegation picture shifted again as Alfreton and Bedford both won, and there’ll be many more nerve-wracking twists and turns to come no doubt before the end of the season, King’s Lynn’s alleged pitch sabotaging being one such, which could result in a points deduction if proved to be a deliberate act to force a postponement. The drop zone needs a twist or a turn in Hereford’s favour on Tuesday night, which can only mean a win, against a bang-average Chester side.

COYW