Our regular step 2 opposition travel for our last pre-Christmas home game. They are a club in strangely mixed form who gather more points on the road than they do at home. Generally speaking, Spenny beat the strugglers in NLN though are well turned over by the better teams..
They are the divisions 6th highest scorers mainly thanks to their prolific strikers, Will Harris and Glen Taylor yet have the 6th worse defence. Even more strangely, they have kept 9 clean sheets. When they concede, they properly concede. So which Spennymoor will we get?
The goal against column doesn’t say much for Ben Pollocks reputation as a defender. By the way, there is a surprising lot of pollocks in football. We all know about his dad Jamie yet there is a younger brother too – Mattie Pollock, 22, who’s played 5 times for Watford this season. Bar Ben’s 3-game ban for being sent off at Scunthorpe, he’s pretty much been ever present for his latest side. He’s had least 4 different defensive partners this season, even 41-year- old antique defender Jamie Curtis had a few runouts, once his bench cobwebs were brushed off. Curtis may make even Jamie Willetts look small and thus is unbeatable in the air. But on the ground even some Radio Hereford presenters would fancy their chances in a foot race.
Spennymoor manager Lewis Dickman needed an operation on an inflamed appendix in November. He missed several games and returned to the touchline this week. That’s just life taking over and not much you can do about it. Whether their recent results may have been different with a healthy manager it’s impossible to say from this distance. Plain facts are that our visitors have won only once in last seven including a rather strange 4-2 defeat by Gloucester.
At the Tiger Turf, the assistant manager complained of missed chances and being caught in possession too often. After their most recent defeat, Dickman wondered whether they were over analysing their own shortcomings and was clear he needed new signings.
It’s a stat we keep repeating – every season we host the County Durham club and every year they head back North with at least one point in their coach boot. To their credit, they generally play football so we don’t have the “what am I doing here” utter boredom factor of say Southport. This year we’ve stepped up our game, we have a goal scorer of our own and we are seven places higher in the League. Maybe we can exploit the Northerners current erratic form and beat them for once? Send up back the m5 with an empty boot muttering “Bah humbug..” Their senior midfielder Rob Ramshaw – 7 years with the club was sent off last Saturday so may miss our game.
Their club fan group are running coaches to Hereford and their next opponents Chorley for £30 total – as in £15 each. That’s a brilliant price and should boost numbers in the away end. A lot of fundraising efforts were required to be able to offer those bargain prices.
Hopefully see you all at the Street to enhance our reputation of being the best supported part time club in England.
Spennymoor Town (ticketco.events)
If you can’t make it, BBC Hereford & Worcester or Radio Hereford FC will do their best to fill you in.
Simon Wright
