Relegation battle – it’s official

Beleaguered Hereford FC host Marine on Tuesday night, pitch allowing, as they attempt to start picking up points from their multiple games in hand. A forecast of 16 hours of rain prior to kick-off doesn’t look ideal though.

This is a hugely important time for the board to make the right decisions, and a hugely important time in the managerial career of Paul Caddis.

Marine had an excellent start to the season and were fifth when this match was originally scheduled. They’ve slipped to tenth since then, but seven points from their last three games is form Hereford can only dream of. They don’t tend to draw away from home and they’re in no way prolific scorers, and given that the hosts aren’t either this will probably end up being a 5-5 thriller. I can’t quite see it though.

They took a while to acclimatise to the National League North last season following promotion, and looked way off it at Edgar Street in terms of quality (not much) and naivity (loads), but quickly turned things around and finished 19 points clear of the drop in losing just two of their last ten games. There’s very little chance of them exhibiting any of that naivity this time having really kicked on since then, when Hereford have very much gone backwards.

Bobby Grant is their manager, and something of a ‘Mr Marine’ having also played for and captained the club.

If this isn’t to go the same way as so many other home games this season, Aaron Skinner will be required to keep Fin Sinclair-Smith quiet. The diminutive ex-Radcliffe left-winger is having a fruitful season and will give the Hereford defence plenty to think about, as will centre forward George Newell, who has proved to be a handful for more watertight defences than Hereford’s over the course of the season, and seems to have inherited some of his father Mike’s attributes as a typical English centre forward and target man.

When this match was first scheduled, Remaye Campbell was a doubt because of injury. He’s now a good deal more than a doubt as he’s left. At the time, Callum McFarlane was also available to play up front, but he’s also gone. Campbell’s attitude was first class of course, but he was never going to score 15 goals in an NLN season, so his departure looks like one that will unusually suit all parties, as his wages can go towards someone more likely to regularly score. Finding that person is a different matter, and at the time of writing Andy Williams is still the only out-and-out striker at the club, with coach Adam Rooney needing to be called upon to chip in as a substitute. That situation doesn’t obviously point to the Bulls being able to score their way out of trouble, so perhaps there’ll be a new striker in place for this game. If not Tuesday, there certainly will have to be very soon after.

It’s getting to the stage where maybe Lewis Hudson could be moved up the pitch. He’s been giving a captain’s example of how to find the net in regularly scoring recently. He’s now got three in four games. A tailor-made in-house replacement for Remaye Campbell perhaps?

On last Saturday’s evidence, the biggest threat from Hereford will come from Cormac Daly. He should start again here after showing well on his debut at the weekend. What he also showed is how devoid of similar threat the Bulls have been this season since Yusifu Ceesay’s departure. Having got a game under his belt, he’ll hopefully kick on.

Justin Donawa looks like he may have a goal in him soon, and the two other recent arrivals, Charlie Pavey and Cherif Yaya, could have bigger roles to play on their home debuts, having both got some game time on Saturday to introduce them to the rigours of the National League North.

A solitary point earned from the last two games against Kings Lynn and Curzon Ashton, both bang out of form (Kings Lynn lost at home to strugglers Alfreton at the weekend), strongly suggests that this Hereford side is indeed poor enough to be relegated, games in hand or not. Telford, hugely progressive under Kevin Wilkin, scored eight recently at Curzon. It’s becoming impossible really to find anything about Hereford’s season that could be termed progressive, other than that the club continues to have money in the bank.

The Bulls are now seven points from safety with five games in hand over fifth-bottom Kings Lynn. Seven points, on current form, seems huge. Five games in hand, on current form, seems irrelevant.

So, on all available evidence currently, it looks like it will be an exciting end to the season after all - unfortunately in all the wrong ways.

COYW