Hereford fell to their first home defeat of the new season under Paul Caddis on Saturday. Can they bounce back at the Lamb Ground? Simon Wright looks ahead.
What do we make of a club which has picked up 7 points out of 9 on grass on the road but have lost both home matches on their plastic carpet?
We don’t get to visit the Lamb very often. Or to give the stadium its full title the Compare the Build community stadium. If you think that’s longwinded, the previous title was the CR MOT Centre community Stadium at the Lamb. This is our first of 6 visits to hosts with 4G surfaces but that shouldn’t be an issue any more as we train on 4G at Studley.
Tamworth introduced their artificial surface in 2016 and it’s become an affordable springboard to attract the local community. The Lambs have 17 Academy teams starting from under 6, a full-time 2 -year scholarship programme for 16-18 year olds and a ladies’ team. The stadium is in use pretty much every day.
Our only previous visit as Hereford FC was in the FA Cup, the first of a pair of grim stalemates that are best overlooked. There’s a theme developing here. Of course, there were several earlier visits as Hereford United back in the Conference days when the home side had a reputation as a very direct, long ball team.
If you are travelling, remember the match is all ticket with our allocation limited to 750 terrace places and just 50 seats. Use the link below. No tickets on the day.
For first timers, there is a big car park right next to the ground at £2 per time. Being segregated means no access to the club bar. There are lots of beer alternatives in the town centre about ten minutes’ walk away.
Newly promoted from step 3 as champions Tamworth FC had a tough start to their season having to host Scunthorpe on the opening day. The League champions elect scraped a 2-1 win. I do get the feeling that Tamworth owners are “going for it” and beating Spennymoor 4-1 and Boston United 2-0 on their own pitches are impressive results. Since then, they lost at home to passion killers Alfreton before grabbing a Desmond at Farsley Celtic.
The club have 22 players, all contracted with shirt numbers, despite the balance sheet showing that £1 million is already owed to someone, presumably the owners. As a consequence, season ticket prices are surely the highest in NLN, at £368 for a seat. Interestingly, Tamworth have £1m worth of assets which presumably means they own the ground. Most new recruits are from step 3, players the manager knows from his Rushden and Diamonds days. Mind, they could be a player light soon with one of their squad pleading guilty to betting on 600 football matches.
Several familiar names in the Lambs squad including Jamie Willetts (11 games last season but only one start v Farsley when he scored), Kyle Finn (joint 3rd highest scorer last term with 11) and Jordan Culliane-Liburd in from Brackley. The club danger man is clearly Dan Creaney who scored 40 goals in 43 Step 3 games in 23/24. He’s 29 so is less likely to be lured away.
Manager Andy Peaks was bought in 18 months ago to save Tamworth dropping into Step 4 He rather exceeded his target. Under his watch, the Lambs have only lost 9 games out of 59 and he is on contract until 2025.
Remember, there will be no tickets available on the day, so you need to purchase via the Tamworth link:
Match Tickets | Tamworth FC Tickets (ktckts.com)
If you can’t make it there is a BT stream from which Hereford get your cash if you nominate them.
