Bulls frustrated by big freeze

Hereford’s FA Cup second round replay against Lincoln City has been called off after the Imps’ pitch was deemed unsafe following the recent poor weather.

Jamie Pitman’s men will have to wait until next Tuesday to battle out the tie, with the a trip to fellow League Two side Wycombe Wanderers the reward for the winners.

This is the second game in the space of four days to be called off because of a frozen pitch, as the Bulls’ home match against Morecambe in the league fell victim to the snow at the weekend.

One of the only games that did go ahead in the league saw Hereford’s relegation rivals Northampton Town and Stockport County go head to head at Sixways. The home side came out 2-0 winners to ease their worries, but Stockport will be looking over their shoulder as a win for Hereford in their game in hand could Pitman’s men just one point behind them. Meanwhile, Barnet, who sit second bottom, lost away at Oxford United, 2-1.

Hereford’s next chance to bridge the gap at the bottom of the football league will be this weekend as they make the trip to Yorkshire to play the former Premier League side,  Bradford City.

Bradford have been in some indifferent form themselves. Whilst at 16th in the table they don’t have the pressure relegation residing over them, Peter Taylor’s side have been in the headlines recently after their club captain, Zesh Rehman recently criticised his manager for being over looked in recent fixtures.

The Pakistan captain has been told he can leave on a free in January after breaking club rules and now finds himself in the middle of a media battle which can only distract the team from matters on the pitch.

It may well be a good time to make the trip to Valley Parade for Hereford. Let’s just hope the snow doesn’t get in the way!

League Two Round-Up

The Bulls 5-0 thumping of Stockport County was the shock of the day in this division and we can also celebrate the fact that most of the other sides at this end of the table dropped points on Saturday. A day which saw bags of goals and plenty of red cards being shown.

The Bulls were bottom at the start of the day but we have our rivals Shrewsbury to thank for lifting us up one place as they beat struggling Barnet 2-1 at home.  Morecombe and Lincoln also dropped points as the former lost 3-1 at Torquay, while the latter could only manage a 2-2 draw at promotion hopefuls Wycombe Wanderers. In fact, with Accrington Stanley losing 4-2 at home to Cheltenham, thanks to a Jeff Goulding brace, Northampton were the only side in the bottom eight who also recorded a victory, as they beat Gillingham 2-1 at Sixfields.

At the top of the table, league leaders Chesterfield dropped more points away from home when they were held to a 0-0 draw at Stevenage. This allowed the others to close the gap. Port Vale, Bury and The Shrews all obliged as Vale beat local rivals Crewe Alexander 2-1 despite Anthony Griffith seeing red, while Bury won 3-1 away at nine-man Aldershot thanks to Mike Jones’ brace. Both sides moved to within a point of the Spireites. As mentioned earlier, Shrewsbury beat Barnet and sit four points further back. Meanwhile, Rotherham went down 1-0 to Paul Sturrock’s Southend as his son Blair grabbed the game’s only goal in just the fifth minute at Roots Hall.

Bradford were rampant at home against Oxford, as the Bantams scored five courtesy of a brace from Omar Daley, and goals from Lee Hendrie, Dave Syers and Louis Moult. Finally, a mid-table clash at Moss Rose saw Macclesfield produce a stout display to see off Burton Albion with a 2-1 win.

Pitman happy to go back to basics

Bulls caretaker-manager Jamie Pitman is happy with his sides improvement over the last three games but was quick to stress the importance of getting the basics right ahead of this Saturday’s game against Stockport County at Edgeley Park.

Pitman told BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester: “We’ve improved every game and we look like we are little bit more progressive in our play, so hopefully we can continue in that but we have to make sure we do all the basics first like defend properly,  work hard and pass the ball when we have it. “Those basic things need to be done week in and week out. “Sometimes they tend to get lost among all the technical stuff but we have tried to continually drip feed them with that kind of information.”

Pitman  hopes to oversee another positive Hereford performance against the Hatter’s, with United looking to extend their unbeaten run to four games. However, the 34-year-old is not taking his side’s new-found confidence for granted: “They are all tough games in this league and anyone can beat anyone so we need to go into the game with the mindset that we can win it” he said.

County will be looking to emulate their comprehensive 4-1 victory over the Bulls the last time these sides met at Edgeley Park in League One back in January 2009.

Goalkeeper Dan Connor remains sidelined with his longstanding hip injury, and Guillermo Bauza remains troubled with a slight groin strain, but apart from that there are no additional injury concerns for the Bulls.

MK Dons 0-0 Hereford United

 

 

So my 2-1 prediction wasn’t exactly correct, but no one can argue that if we were offered a point at the Dons before the game we would have snatched their hand off!

Turner named exactly the same squad that beat Darlington on Saturday with Wayne Brown once again doing his super man impression.

Brown produced a string of fantastic saves from Jude Stirling and then Jemal Johnson after keeping out Alan Navarro in the early exchanges frustrating the home crowd. Hereford were forced to keep out a seige of Dons attacks throughout the game but did carve a chance as early as the fourth minute when Guinan had time to cross but Hooper couldnt convert.

Hooper had another chance from 25 yards but lobbed his effoty the wrong side of the stranded Dons keeper’s cross bar.

Paul Ince’s celebratory champagne for promotion will for the second game running remain on ice, although a win on Saturday at in form Stockport County will seal it.

As far as the Bulls goes, the draw means we go a point ahead of Stockport in third and seven behind Peterborough in second. Beating them on Saturday and then winning the game in hand will but us in a fantastic position to finish in second place.

Everybody put your MK Dons shirts on underneath your Bulls top this weekend, because any day light between us and the playoff spots (Stockport in fourth who play Dons on Saturday) is a priority rather than catching ‘Boro in second.

 So part two of the ‘week of death’ over, now to finish the job with a win this weekend, we are almost over the line! As Alex Ferguson once said, its squeaky bum time!

Gleeson off to Stockport

WOLVES loanee Stephen Gleeson has joined fellow league 2 side Stockport County on loan till the end of the season.

The midfielder had been on loan at Hereford but the one month deal expired and Wolves boss Mick McCarthey has decided to send him out again.

The 19 year old only made a handul of appearances for the Bulls and was subject to a club vs country row this week as he was unable to travel to Lincoln on Tuesday because of U21 commitements with Ireland.

Gleeson now joins Stockport County who are also pushing for promotion.

Jim Gannon’s side are 5th in the league and if the nightmare of Hereford not making automatic promotion becomes a reality, Gleeson could be playing against the Bulls sooner than he would have liked.