24-12-18 – Preview – Hereford FC Vs Kidderminster Harriers

Big game time coming up. This year we have a change from the usual trip to Telford to look forward too and it’s over the Downs to Hereford FC. It’s been a few years since we last played Hereford and that was in their United guise but we have played them in a friendly a couple of seasons back when they came to us for for the Steve Millington memorial game.

Their fans have also visited us when we played Welling in a televised league game  and around two hundred Hereford fans turned up to unfurl their banners and protest against the crooks taking their club over. That terrible episode in their history is now well behind them and since the reformation into FC they have cruised up the pyramid sweeping all before them.

That has now come to a grinding halt with them struggling in the National North relegation zone, the sacking of the manager that helped rescue them – Peter Beadle – and the fans slowly drifting away from a high of 4,500 to around the 2,300 mark. The fans are now becoming accustomed to being on the losing end.

On Saturday they saw a mini decent run come to an end with a defeat at Bradford (Park Avenue) after winning three on the trot against FC Utd of Manchester, Alfreton Town and Billericay Town in the FA Trophy. Before that they had gone ten games without a win, the last coming against Truro in the FA Cup. That also came in the middle of a bad run too stretching back to Leamington on August 14th.

Since the new manager, Marc Richards, came in he has tried to bring in new faces to stop them from the slide but it doesn’t seem to be working yet. One of those ‘new faces’ was ex Harrier Josh Gowling who left Torquay Utd, via Alfreton, two weeks ago to join them. Also with them is Calvin Dinsley who was with us a few years ago but didn’t impress overmuch. The one that had potential and is now with them is Keyon Reffell but he’s been out all season with an ankle injury and underwent further surgery in October to sort the problem out.

There was another Red at Edgar Street until recently but Harry White has now left the club to go travelling the world. His first stopping point was in Redditch when he joined them a few days after missing his plane.

Following our lucky home draw against Curzon Ashton on Saturday we should be injury free once again. We were told by the club on Friday that James O’Connor was fully recovered from his groin injury but he was no where to be seen by the time the match came round. He may be fit for this game.

Hereford have a couple of players with problems. On loan Harvey Smith picked up and injury last week while playing in a game for his parent club Bristol City but should be ok to play while James Wesolowski is due to have a scan on a hamstring injury to assess the full extent of the injury he picked up on his debut two weeks ago and will not play.

This is a game, both games infact, that Hereford will be up for but while we may also be up for it too I can’t see us being up enough sadly to say. Our recent form, along with our frustrating style of play, has put doubts in many minds that we can get anything from a tough place to go. Christmas cheer might be in short supply but please Santa let it be a win for the Reds.  

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Hall, Palmer, Phillips, Horsfall, O’Connor, Penn, Vaughan, Johnson, Wagner, Baxendale, Weeks, Stratford, Taylor-Randle, Austin, Bradley, Chambers, Daniels, K Richards, Williams, Waring.

Hereford FC from:

Horsell, Yates, Greenslade, Cullinane-Liburd, Thomas, Gowling, Wassall, Dielna, H Smith, Dinsley, E Richards, O’Sullivan, Murphy, Owen-Evans, Hockey, Finn, Wharton, Roberts. Lloyd, Franklin, L Smith, Symons.

Referee: Mr Sam Mulhall. Cheshire

Talk about the game here

Links to Hereford FC websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here