AFC Telford 0 Hereford 1 - Report

Although you get the feeling that their progress simply has to bring more points for Kevin Wilkin’s side sooner or later, the Bucks simply can’t afford to leave it too much later.

With over one third of the season played and just one win to their name, every failure to put points on the board simply ramps up the need to win a higher proportion of their remaining matches. It’s not an impossible task, but keeping the target within reach is surely a key to maintaining some form of belief, both for their supporters and within the team itself.

Their performance against the Bulls from down the A49 was worthy of a point; however, their inability to create many clear opportunities, combined with a horrible goalkeeping lapse from Luke Pilling, consigned them to defeat.

Even a red card for Hereford’s Ryan McLean, who also scored their winner against his home town club, failed to shift the balance sufficiently in the Bucks favour, although it wasn’t for the want of trying.

Wilkin made six changes to the side defeated at Blyth Spartans seven days earlier, welcoming back injury absentees Pilling and captain Matty Brown. Striker Jason Oswell started his first game since last season, having missed pre-season and a big chunk of matches with a stress fracture.

The defence was almost entirely different, with Harry Flowers the only player who started both at Blyth and on Saturday. Loan signings Adam Senior and Bailey Sloane filled the full-back berths, Sloane having not even trained with the side before making his debut, and both put in creditable displays in the circumstances.

Wilkin has stated frequently that he wants a side managed by him to be more reliable, with and without the ball, and to show greater intensity and concentration. They certainly started this game with intensity, albeit perhaps not channelling it. In front of a crowd of over 1,500, play was frantic but exciting.

Oswell made contact with an early corner but his back-header travelled wide of the far post, and soon after, Bulls keeper Brad Wade was scrambling to cover an attempt on goal that went just past his left post.

The Bucks were busily pressing and closing Hereford down but it wasn’t one-way traffic. The visitors are a side built to counter-attack, using the pace of McLean and Miles Storey, playing either side of former Bucks striker Tyrone Barnett, now heading towards veteran status.

Barnett headed a cross over the bar in the 14th minute, when he might have tested Pilling, but the Bulls were soon to hit the bullseye. Left-back Jack Evans was put off balance as he cut infield towards the penalty area by Prince Ekpolo, and stumbled forwards before tumbling. The free-kick was just a few yards outside the box and after a little shuffle on the

spot, midfielder Harry Pinchard struck the ball, left-footed, over the defensive wall and towards Pilling’s left-hand top corner.

The keeper, who has been absent from the side with a calf injury, did well to get a hand to it but pushed the ball into the air rather than over his bar; as he reached back to try and grab the dropping ball, McLean read the situation and darted in to convert from close range.

That fatal misjudgement put the Bucks up against it once again, but they steadied themselves, pressed ‘Reset’ and started to rebuild their momentum. Wade almost kicked a clearance against Oswell, and another burst of attacking intent saw Oswell try to hook the ball over his own head with his back to goal, without making the desired contact.

Hereford’s Evans was the first player booked, his full-blooded encounter with Bucks namesake Robbie leaving both down injured. The Bucks midfielder was a dynamic presence all afternoon, haring here, there and everywhere and setting a tone for his teammates.

Wade saved Brendon Daniels’ shot on the turn inside the penalty area, and at the other end Pilling got down to stop McLean’s low 20-yarder as the sides traded blows. Nate Blissett then headed Senior’s free-kick over the bar, and another Senior cross, which became a real Garryowen in rugby terms, was almost dropped at Oswell’s feet by Wade, who was surely relieved to get a second chance to hold the ball.

The half ended as it had begun, frantically. Orrin Pendley was booked for holding Oswell back, and from the resulting free-kick, Flowers glanced a header goalwards from Daniels’ delivery, Wade pushing the ball to his left and grateful that Blissett couldn’t latch onto the loose ball.

The Bulls cleared, Sloane was robbed of possession as he dithered on it and suddenly Hereford had a two-on-one break; they released the rapid McLean, and he progressed into the box in the blink of an eye, but was denied by the legs of Pilling as he tried to shoot past the keeper from the right of goal.

Half Time: AFC Telford United 0-1 Hereford FC

A lively start to the second half saw an inviting chance dangled in front of Oswell, as a cross from the right appeared to take a deflection, taking it over the first defender and into the space Oswell was advancing into. It will take time for him to recover his predatory instincts, and he couldn’t take what was a sharp chance.

Hereford lost Thierry Latty-Fairweather to injury soon after, delaying the taking of a Bucks corner with what the home crowd initially thought was an act of gamesmanship. To be fair to them, the Bulls had already shown signs of trying to push the boundaries, making it hard to tell what was genuine, and what wasn’t. When the corner was eventually taken, Flowers powerful downward header was cleared off the line, and Brown thrust out a leg to divert the ball back on goal, the effort bouncing off the top of the crossbar.

Jordan Thompson, who replaced Latty-Fairweather, was soon booked, for trying to prevent Sloane getting the ball to take a throw-in, and the scene for the final half-an-hour was set.

The Bucks looked more purposeful in their attempts to chase the game, moving the ball better and working the Bulls from side to side, but it wasn’t yielding chances. Hereford, with former Shrewsbury Town striker Aaron Amadi-Holloway deployed as a centre-half alongside Pendley, resisted the Bucks pressure and took every chance they could to break the game up and slow it down. Virtually every side at this level does it on occasion, but Josh Gowling’s side’s gamesmanship lacked subtlety, and perhaps also signalled their ambition was to hold on, rather than look for more goals to make the game safe.

A foul by Amadi-Holloway gave Daniels a strike at goal from just outside the box, Wade down well to save his low shot, and Wilkin went for broke, removing Sloane in favour of Devarn Green. He immediately set to work on the left-wing, but it was a combination between Senior and Jamie Allen, largely a peripheral figure, that led to the next chance; winning a corner, Ekpolo missed his header from Daniels’ kick and when Green retrieved, Flowers sent his near-post header wide.

Green then cut inside but curled a near-post shot wide, before a foul on Ekpolo by Bulls substitute Luke Haines forced the midfielder to leave the action. The pressure continued, and Oswell headed a free-kick straight at Wade, but a flurry of corners failed to force the door open.

As the game entered its final five minutes, a rare Hereford attack was broken up and Green was sent haring into the Bulls half. McLean, one of the few players with the pace to match Green, went in pursuit and although Green was wide on the left and not directly threatening goal. McLean decided to launch himself crudely, bringing Green crashing.

Referee Richard Aspinall went straight to his back pocket and McLean got a straight red card, presumably for being out of control when making the tackle, or using excessive force.

Haines made unconvincing attempts to persuade Mr Aspinall that he’d been fouled for a penalty, and as a further six minutes were added on, largely because of Bulls time-wasting, Wilkin threw striker Mo Faal into the mix, going all to try and gain some reward.

Faal won a header that resulted in Brown striking a shot down into the turf and up into Wade’s arms, then Wade turned away a shot from Green, once again cutting in to unload, but despite the home side crashing around like bulls in a china shop, it was the Bulls who held themselves together to leave the Bucks still searching for a win.

Referee: Richard Aspinall.

Assistants: Zharir Mustafa, Graeme Kearney.

Attendance: 1, 582.

Telford: (4-4-2) Pilling, Senior (Faal 89), Sloane (Green 62), Brown, Flowers, Ekpolo (Chong 74), Evans, Daniels, Allen, Blissett, Oswell.

Subs not used: Bood, Piggott.

Cautioned: Evans.

Hereford FC: Wade, Evans, Latty-Fairweather (Thompson 51), Amadi- Holloway, Pendley, Pinchard (Derricott 90), Hanson, Rowe (Haines 63), Storey, McLean, Barnett.

Subs not used: Caton, Holmes.

Cautioned: Evans, Pendley, Haines, Thompson.

Dismissed: McLean.

Scorers: McLean (16).