No excuses

On Thursday a Hereford side yet again failed to cope with Alfreton simply being Alfreton. You know what’s coming and you know it won’t be pretty, but given where they are in the table other sides have clearly managed to deal with the bombardment defensively and ripped them to shreds at the other end. It’s that defensive aspect that is a continuing concern for Hereford.

The Bulls are of course straight back in action on Saturday as they travel up to Macclesfield, following a midweek that’s best left brushed under the carpet.

As the club chairman rightly pointed out at the last fans forum, it wouldn’t be Hereford if everything ran smoothly, and back-to-back defeats in midweek mean that the battle against relegation is still very much on. However, an impartial observer would still see Hereford as being in the strongest position of any club in the bottom six, and to fail to finish above four of their fellow strugglers given the position those three wins on the bounce recently left them in would take a complete tailing-off in form.

It’s another short recovery time between games of course, but as Aaron Downes rightly says, highlighting such things merely creates a culture of excuses. With multiple changes made to each starting line-up in midweek, there should still be enough freshness to be competitive here.

This one’s a battle between two phoenix clubs who in recent years lost their surnames as a result of terminal financial problems. United and Town are now both truncated ‘FCs’ as newly-formed clubs.

Newly promoted Macclesfield emulated Hereford in shooting up the lower leagues (after previous incarnation Macclesfield Town went pop in 2020), and cantered into the National League North in winning the Northern Premier last season, a good few weeks before the end of the season.

Robbie Savage was at the helm for that promotion, before leaving for Nailsworth’s Forest Green Rovers, with Laurent Mendy, Tre Pemberton, and Neil Kengni going with him to the Stroud Valleys. Those losses could have been felt deeply. That hasn’t really been the case though, as like Merthyr they’ve adapted quickly and well to the NLN, and sit in sixth place, enjoying an unlikely run deep into the FA Cup’s latter stages to boot.

They’ve won six of their last ten games, they’re consistent and ultra solid at home, and following that Cup run they have games in hand that would seem to make it unlikely that they’ll miss out on play-off participation this season.

They’re a club of a similar size, shape and feel to Hereford, and one that’s recently been through the same existential upheaval. With the right person in charge at Edgar Street, there’s no reason why Hereford can’t operate towards the top of the division with Macc next season (if the latter don’t go up).

However, we’re made to believe that it’s all too difficult when competing against tiny clubs with generous benefactors, which goes back to that culture of excuses. Paul Caddis was a bit guilty of that and now has the full-time set-up he craved at Kings Lynn; Aaron Downes isn’t guilty of that and seems to be prepared to make the best of reality, and to feel that maybe with a bit of creative thinking a club as big as the one he’s arrived at can and should be doing better in terms of finding a formula that works at what is quite a low level of football.

For the Silkmen, centre forward Danny Elliott scored 40 in 50 last season at a level lower, and got a goal every other game for Boston at this level a few seasons ago. He’d scored 11 in 20 before getting injured in January, and is out for the rest of the season. They’ve found a way to keep winning without him though, and that’s despite the additional loss of D’Mani Mellor. He’d been matching Danny Elliott in terms of goals scored, but he too has now seen the green, green grass of the Stroud Valleys as being where his future lies. If you’re with Ecotricity and have an electric car, every time you drive anywhere you’re basically paying for new FGR strikers.

Midfielders Justin Johnson and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts are familiar players from their time with Chorley and Curzon Ashton respectively, with Johnson in particular being Chorley’s star man a couple of seasons ago.

I said ahead of the South Shields game that Freddy Willcox was almost guaranteed to be the best defensive midfielder on the pitch. If he starts again here he’s got stiff competition in that respect from Macc captain Paul Dawson, a properly good player at this level and someone Aaron Skinner will know from Bamber Bridge.

They lost 3-0 at Telford on Tuesday, with new signings Theo Chapman and Angola Popoola making their debuts as subs. One or both may start here. Popoola has already done well with Marine and Chorley on loan from Accrington this season, and Chapman has come in from Scarborough.

After the start at Alfreton, it may be best to just see out the first 11 seconds successfully and take it from there. If it’s still 0-0 after 30 seconds that’s something to build on.

COYW