Happy honeymoon

Hereford FC travel to Worksop on Saturday as Aaron Downes’ honeymoon period continues to progress in a way that suggests he could keep the club in the National League North.

Weirdly, Worksop claim to have been founded in 1861, which would make them the fourth oldest football club on the planet. The weird bit is that it doesn’t seem to be true. There’s evidence to suggest that they were kicking a football around as far back as 1875 though, which is still very impressive. They came up from the Northern Premier League last season behind runaway winners Macclesfield.

Long-term manager Craig Parry can be refreshingly blunt when he feels his players have failed to show up, suggesting that ‘Kids wouldn’t defend like that’ after one particular defeat earlier in the season. Unfortunately Bulls fans have had cause to empathise with that sentiment on a few occasions this season. Quite a few.

That Tigers defence has shown weakness this season to long throws, something Justin Donawa could bring to this particular party if he retains his starting place.

Their captain is the pacifically-named defender Luke Waterfall. Threats will come from attacking midfielder Liam Hughes, who has seven goals this season including one at Edgar Street, and ex-Kiddy left back Joe Leesley, who has been a really good signing for them and will get into attacking areas whenever possible.

However, the big danger is ‘imposing’ striker Aaron Martin, with eleven goals this season. ‘Imposing’ generally means he’ll be the one that poor old Kyle Howkins will be tasked with looking after. He’s supported up front by Jordan Burrow, a thoroughly capable striker at this level who has chipped in with seven goals.

Fellow-forward Szhem Whyte-Hall has been signed from Solihull ahead of this one, and with a bit of luck he’ll be as prolific as the lad Hereford had on loan from Moors earlier in the season.

Very unusually, this game gives the Bulls the opportunity to complete a double over someone. Back in September, goals from Andy Williams and the now departed Omari Sterling-James were just about enough to take the points in a 2-1 win.

Tuesday’s trip to Bridlington was always going to be a tough one. On Saturday, however, Hereford face a side who were never going to be troubling the upper reaches of the National League North this season. Sure enough, Worksop currently sit in 16^th position, 12 points ahead of Hereford having played seven games more. If the Bulls can win this, Saturday’s hosts are therefore a club to aim to catch and pass before the season’s through.

In winning three of their last six games they look like they’re well on the way to being safe for next season, barring a complete collapse. That said, if the Bulls are to haul themselves to safety they need to get something from sides like Worksop.

South Shields, Fylde and Macclesfield are coming up back-to-back after a game against Leamington next that absolutely has to be won. There will be nowhere to hide against those three, so four points from Worksop and Leamington is a bare minimum requirement.

Going in at 0-0 at half-time against Scarborough in midweek felt like real progress, which illustrates how disappointing this season has been. What did that game show us, having gone on to finish goalless? Maybe that Hereford have merely become competitive with the addition of the recent recruits rather than now likely to score five every week and easily see off the threat of relegation with games to spare. However, becoming competitive could be progress enough to get out of trouble. That well-earned solid point was given added lustre thanks to Kidderminster’s late winner at Aggborough against Alfreton. Thank you Harriers.

Aaron Downes inherited a pair of strikers with a combined age of 70+ when he arrived, whereas he could opt to go with a pair of strikers with a combined age of under 40 on Saturday. Mikey Lane could make his first start for the club here. There’s very little to go on in terms of what sort of impact he might make, and he could be absolutely anything. The last Lane I can think of with a Hereford connection was Sean Lane, and he was a tidy player. I don’t suppose that counts for much though in terms of anticipating whether Mikey will score hatfuls. Oh and there’s Folly Lane, but that’s not a footballer, and unlike Sean it would have had trouble emigrating to Australia in the 1980s.

A win here would give the new manager a honeymoon period average of two points per game, which, if continued, would see the Bulls sailing comfortably into the calm waters of a mid-table finish. There is, however, the small matter of that horrific mid-March trio of nasty games to navigate.

Finally a word on that new manager. I’m really warming to him. His eager anticipation of Tuesday night’s return to Edgar Street seems truly heartfelt. I hope he’s rewarded with a bumper gate and a cracking atmosphere. Credit also to chairman Chris Ammonds for recruiting a seemingly genuine and decent person to manage the club following what must have been the difficult decision to let go of another one in Paul Caddis, who seems with his new job in Norfolk to have achieved the difficult task of making his Hereford commute look quite cushy.

COYW