A load of old bull vs Hereford (L2)

In my Bedfordshire village it had been pelting down for a couple of days (is it St Swithens day yet?) and it looked like being a wet drive down to the stadium and a wet game for the players. My in-laws were visiting, so I could do a few mother in law jokes here and pretend I was glad to get out of the house, but in fact we get on well and I was sorry to have to scoot off. But I was looking forward to the game and the rain gradually petered out as I got nearer to Grenoble Road and it eventually stopped as I managed to park. Good. I got there at 1.30 and the East Stand car park was virtually full. I'll just have to camp there overnight to be sure of a space when we get into League 1!

As the only home game in a run of six, this was an important game. A win would put us into the playoff positions, even a draw might do. But Herefords form and especially their recent away record is very impressive and they have been slowly climbing the table after having a bit of 'cow' early in the season. So it wouldn't be easy.

The team was unchanged from the excellent win at Morecambe, which is always a good sign showing a bit of form and stability. It was Forces day at the stadium, with loads of squaddies swelling the crowd to an impressive 7800. The Hereford fans had also made the effort to travel the awkward roads from the west with about 600 of them making the trip. Not bad.

Unlike their team's strip - which was very bad indeed. If you are feeling charitable, you'd say that they looked like Holland. If you were in a bad mood (like if you'd lost a game to them for example - hope I'm not spoiling the suspense!) you'd say that they looked like a load of stewards clothed in all over hi-vis. Unpleasant, really.

Before we get on with the gory details of the match, I'd like to say that I thought the Hereford supporters were very generous with their applause as several local kids' teams did a prematch lap of honour. Good stuff.

The match kicked off with us kicking towards the fence end, and kicking off. Which meant (I think) that Hereford had won the toss and were allowing us to kick towards the East Stand for the second half. That's unusual as teams usually try to do it the opposite way round, knowing our preference.

We abandoned our usual 'hoof' the ball into touch from the kick off, and instead started by passing it about nicely. Hereford didn't really get a touch of the ball, and we made a couple of half chances which came to nothing. It was all going quite well, and we all know what happens next in that scenario!

In their first (and possibly only) attack of the first half, a Hereford player was allowed to get free down their left, the ball was well crossed and Fleetwood did what good strikers do. He got just enough on it to glide it past Clarke. How on earth did that happen? Bad defending is how. But never mind. We'd looked a cut above though, surely we could pull it back?

Hereford were now perfectly happy to put 10 men (if not all 11) behind the ball, and to defy us to break them down. Initially it looked as if it wouldn't take too long. Tonkin and Hall both forced fairly regulation saves from the Bull's keeper, before Craddock was crudely brought down in the penalty area when free on goal.

But according todays refugee from the 'Home for the Terminally Incompetent' the wet and preening Mr Drysdale, that's not a red card and a penalty. It's not a yellow card. It's not a penalty. In fact it's not a foul. Awful. And unlike some of the terrible refs we have had this season, that decision really did affect the outcome of the game. Let's get today's assessment of the ref out of the way while we are here. Useless. Inconsistent. Unobservant. He booked players on both sides for tackles that were much less dangerous than others that had been committed a moment before. He allowed a Hereford player to actually catch the ball and drop it at his own feet. He was completely ineffective at stopping Hereford wasting time as the match wore on. He couldn't stop the shenanigans that both teams committed at corners and free kicks. Enough of him. I hope no other teams in the league have to put up with him.

Craddock had a couple of half chances (although his shirt seemed to get attached to a Hereford player's hand as he had a shot), and Hereford had another dangerous attack that was started when one of their defenders wanted desperately to cuddle Damien Batt. Damien isn't that kind of guy, and tried to run away but the Bull wasn't taking no for an answer. The ref (sorry) didn't see it, or perhaps wanted the course of true love to run smooth, so he let them get on with it. Clarke also decided to go walkabout around this point, just about reaching the touchline before he realised that a) there was someone covering the Bulls attacker he was going out to say hello to and b) he was supposed to be stopping the ball going into the goal. He just about got back in time - but some of his decision making is becoming a bit bizarre at the moment.

Half time came. Applause for the team, boos for the ref. Or perhaps booze for the ref - it wouldn't have made his performance any worse. Sorry again, I said I'd stop. Crossbar challenge - some squaddies who did quite well. I let someone else win the 50/50 again. I'm just so bloody generous.

As the teams ran out for the second half, I was really hoping that we would have made some changes at half time. Maybe Hackney, maybe Potter? Maybe both? Neither. Hmm. Although we'd had the ball for long periods in the first half, it is fair to say that we hadn't in truth done that much with it. We had passed it across the field and generally looked comfortable enough in possession, but it was a bit heavy footed and slow. Batt hadn't really been that effective at exploiting the amount of the ball he had seen, neither had Tonkin. Beano was again not looking likely to score, getting the ball with his back to goal most of the time. Craddock had drifted in and out of the game as he tends to. We had been trying to go round the sides and failed, and tried to pass it through the middle equally inffectively. A change might have livened things up. But lacking that, the game setted very quickly back into the pattern of the first period. Maclean was clattered by a very nasty tackle that in many games would have earned the Hereford player a red card and possibly an ASBO as well. Yellow. I'm not one to want players sent off all the time, but if Batt's tackle at Southend was worthy of a red, then that one was too - it was far far worse.

Heslop put one wide of the post, then from a corner Worley had a glorious chance which he put over the bar. If it had fallen for a striker, you'd like to think it would have been buried. Somehow 25 minutes of the half had gone by and Tufty decided (at bloody last) to put Hackney and Potter on in place of Hall and Craddock. Personally, I'd have kept Craddock on and taken Beano off. Craddock can be infuriating, but he had been far more of a threat than Beano, who is going though a bit of a lean patch both in terms of goals and form. A header from him a couple of minutes later emphasised that as it sailed over the bar, when he should really have got it on target at the very least. Midson came on the replace Maclean, but made very little difference. Again, I would have taken Beano off.

For a while Hackney had found it difficult to get a touch of the ball, but several minutes later an excellent header hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced away. You just knew that it was going to be one of those days!

And so it proved. As we pressed forwards trying to snatch a point, Hereford inevitably broke away and Fleetwood added his second goal of the afternoon deep into stoppage time to seal the points for the visitors, latching onto a fluffed shot by the worst player on the pitch Hereford's Pell (who reminded me of the not much lamented Futcher, in that he was tall. And useless). Potter skewed a late efford horribly wide, but the game was up.

Hereford had come and done a thoroughy professional job, riding their luck at times, but taking their chances and defending very well. Oxford had fluffed their lines, throwing away the chance to move into the playoffs, and in fact losing both a place in the table and points to most of those above them. A bad day - one that reminded me in some ways of Conference matches when teams would come and park the bus, except that Hereford are much better than that.

Diving home, these were my thoughts:

Although nobody would want us to abandon the way we are playing, the tempo needs to be higher and players need to be looking for the forward ball more.
The forwards were very static. Beano wasn't offside once today, which shows how many through balls were played for him to run on to!! Joking, but there wan't really a single threatening through ball played all afternoon.
The midfield challenged for the ball well today.
Wilder's changes were too late by far. I feel we wasted 25 minutes of the second half trying to do stuff that hadn't worked for the previous 45.
Shoot. For God's sake shoot! Too many players passing the buck and the ball, when they could have had a go.
Depite all the above, it was quite an enjoyable game even if it resembled an attack vs defence training exercise for most of the match. And sometimes we played some lovely football.
Although I'd love to be promoted automatically or be in the playoffs (we should still be aiming at both) - I still think we will finish 10th-12th.

Next match - Lincoln away on Tuesday. I'll be there.