WE have had some great results away from Edgar Street since the turn of the year.
Wins at Burton and Dagenham & Redbridge, followed by the draw at Oxford last Saturday have brought us seven points out of nine and have helped to keep us out of the danger zone at the foot of the table.
We are fully aware, though, that it is no good getting these great results away from home if we undo all the good work by losing at home.
We know that our fans want to see us winning at Edgar Street and there would be no better time to start doing that again than when Shrewsbury Town come to Hereford this Saturday.
Games against Shrewsbury are always big occasions because it’s one of our major local derbies.
And there is some extra added spice because of the presence of Graham Turner, John Trewick and Tony Ford in the opposition dug-out.
It’s always a pleasure to pit my wits against Graham and now I’m hoping that it will be my turn to come out on top.
But, just as we need points at our end of the table, Shrewsbury are desperate for points to keep in touch with the leaders and they will be keen to build on the excellent win they had over Southend last weekend.
I know that our return to a 4-5-1 formation has been the subject of a lot of discussion over the past couple of weeks.
It is a formation that our players seem to feel comfortable with and one which suits them well.
And it’s certainly not as though we are the only club in the country playing that way — it’s a system that has found favour with a lot of teams across the country right from the Premier League down.
Some people say that it is a defensive formation but I don’t believe that it is in the way that we play it.
When you have players of the calibre of Yoann Arquin, Tom Barkhuizen and Joe Colbeck to choose from as your wide men, then we have no shortage of attacking options.
They are all fine attacking players with lots of pace and that is one way in which we can make this formation a really dangerous one.
I think that was shown at Oxford on Saturday when, after absorbing a lot of pressure, we were able to break out of defence and stage the moves which brought us goals.
And we had a handful of good other chances in the game — probably clearer openings than Oxford created despite all the possession that they had and the pressure that they applied.
One of the key features for any side, regardless of the formation that they play, is their spirit and I’m proud of the tremendous spirit that we have within our club.
All of our players are prepared to battle hard for the cause and really put the effort in for each other.
They must take tremendous credit for the good results that we have had away from home recently and we can all be sure that they will be going all out to translate that into home points, too.
With that kind of effort and commitment in the side, I’m convinced that we can carry on picking up the points which will keep us clear of danger and move us further up the table.
A win on Saturday would be a great reward for them and I know, too, what that would mean to the fans, particularly those who have been roaring us on at Burton, Dagenham and Oxford.
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