The Bucks lifted themselves out of the Enterprise National League North’s bottom four and torched a few betting accumulators with victory at MandM Edgar Street.
Kevin Wilkin described the performance, saying “as well as we’ve played all season”, with the Bucks taking the upper hand through Louis Moult’s 32nd-minute goal. The Bucks then defended their advantage doggedly in the second half against a Bulls charge, aided by the odd slice of luck their efforts arguably warranted.
With Hereford top of the division and having won 2-1 at promotion-contending Macclesfield a few days earlier, the Bucks faced a tough task.
Kevin Wilkin kept a 4-3-3 formation but changed the personnel, with Oliver Cawthorne returning from suspension to replace Orrin Pendley. Further forward, Jamie Meddows made his first start since his injury at Worksop on the season’s second weekend, replacing Kian Ryley.
The hosts came into the game unchanged, and as the league’s leading scorers and tightest defensive unit. Given those statistics and the Bucks’ uncertain form, few would have predicted what unfolded.
Rather than a cautious start, the Bucks took the contest to the Bulls within minutes of kick-off. Meddows' presence on the right, and his nonchalance in possession, was a key factor early on. The Bucks’ willingness to carry the ball into wide areas and link up with colleagues on the fringes of the penalty area.
An early Bucks free-kick brought a Cawthorne foul on keeper Theo Richardson, and Meddows’s work then earned a corner as the Bulls cleared from Moult at the near post. The same avenue kept opening up and another corner earned by Meddows was played short to set up a shooting chance for Walker, whose effort from the edge of the box on the right was deflected off the back of a Bulls defender into the side netting as the Bucks kept the early pressure on.
The Bucks’ clearest chance of the opening stages came after 14 minutes. Charlie Williams did superbly to control and turn a ball cleared by his colleagues past his marker Joe James in one movement on the halfway line. Williams darted away, got to the penalty area and picked out the arriving Walker; however, he couldn’t direct his shot on the run, and sent it comfortably wide to Richardson’s right.
Another effort on goal came soon after, as their neat football around the box set up Sam McLintock to strike at goal; however, his effort, aimed towards the far post from the right, curled away from Richardson and wide of the target.
Hereford were offering little and the Bucks’ openings kept coming. Mal Benning’s athleticism retrieved the ball on the left, Walker picked up the pieces when his cross was partially cleared and he fed Williams, who dug out a shot that drifted narrowly wide of the far post.
The Bulls began to paw, preparing themselves to respond. James, their right-back, collected Danny Waldron’s pass dropped back to him and swung over a cross which Billy Phillips glanced towards the far post. Aaron Skinner arrived to strike at goal from a narrowing angle and earned a corner, the officials deciding Brandon Hall had made a save although it appeared Skinner’s effort struck the outside of the post.
The resulting corner, which went deep to the far post, was retrieved by the Bulls and Luke Spokes’ effort on goal from the ‘D’ rose and sailed into the night sky at what was once the Blackfriars End.
If that spell gave the impression the tide was turning, the Bucks proved otherwise on their next attack, taking the lead.
With 32 minutes passed, Hall’s goal kick was missed by both Kyle Howkins and Will Merrett, and Williams anticipated the slip, latching onto the ball as it travelled into the right side of the penalty area. Williams delayed and then laid the ball between Richardson and a defender through the six-yard box for Louis Moult to feast on, and he eagerly tapped it in.
The Bucks tried to maintain pressure, and Walker blocked a long-range shot, but Hereford responded. Phillips linked up from a throw-in on the left, and when they retrieved Skinner’s overhit cross, they set up Spokes in the ‘D’ again. Turning left from his right, he found roughly the same spot in the derelict land at the Blackfriars End.
Bucks’ chances kept coming, and from a Curley throw on the right, Moult pulled away towards the goal line, turned the ball into Meddows’ path, and he advanced from the angle before stabbing a shot past Richardson but a yard or two wide of the far post.
At the interval, the Bucks knew Hereford would respond, and they did, in a second half where their focus shifted more to defence than attack.
Harry Tustin made early inroads, collecting the ball on the left and heading infield to take a shot from 20-25 yards, which the Bucks blocked.
Matt Curley was then booked for cutting down Harrison Iwunze on the left, giving the Bulls a free-kick opportunity. Skinner stepped up, struck the ball goalwards, and Hall reached up as the ball clipped the top of the crossbar at the near post.
However, the storm the Bucks might have been anticipating didn’t come. Kevin Wilkin withdrew Meddows, the midfielder having filled an hour with sixty minutes’ worth of distance run. Kian Ryley replaced Meddows and helped set up a chance that probably should have become a second goal. Getting the better of his man on the right, Tyler’s cross was headed clear, only to fall to McLintock. His immediate effort wasn’t cleanly struck; it hit a defender, and Walker corralled the ball but fired it too high from 10 yards out.
The Bulls didn't apply sustained pressure until the final 20 minutes, with Fin Holmes lively on the right after replacing Waldron, who’d been nullified by the Bucks defence.
Another Tustin effort from distance saw the midfielder jink forward in possession, but his shot struck a Bucks defender en route to goal, and was carried wide to Hall’s right, with the keeper wrong-footed.
The Bulls’ desire was growing, as they competed more fiercely to overturn possession, and from one such moment they created an opportunity for Spokes on the left of the penalty area. He aimed his shot across Hall, and the keeper’s legs deflected it wide of the far post.
The hosts won a succession of corners as they penned the Bucks in, Wilkin’s men now operating on the counter-attack. Williams, who had been involved in a flashpoint with James shortly before, was withdrawn for Jack Lambert, but Hereford still had the attacking impetus.
Their best chance came with just three minutes left. Spokes hooked the ball forward from midfield; Lilly and Cawthorne had a rare lapse, getting in each other’s way, and Iwunze advanced. He took his shot early as Benning slid in to block, but he placed it too close to Hall, and the former Bulls’ block rebounded to Holmes. He delayed a moment, and Hall and Benning combined to deny him.
Five minutes of added time gave the Bulls hope, but the Bucks ate up much of that time in the hosts’ half. Spokes ended Ryley’s determined run by putting a spoke in his wheel on the edge of the box. Spokes was booked, and Lambert’s free-kick came off the top of the defensive wall but crucially kept the ball away from Hall’s goal.
By the time the final whistle blew, some Bulls fans had already started to leave, but the 170 Bucks fans who’d backed their side noisily all evening weren’t going anywhere. They celebrated with a weary but exhilarated group of Bucks on the pitch, who’d delivered the estocada.