Hereford United v Lincoln City (FA Cup 2nd Round) – Mischievous Imps

Its FA Cup weekend and I’m back to Hereford to watch them take on Lincoln City.

In the first round the Bulls dispatched Hythe Town fairly easily, but tomorrow’s game at Edgar Street might prove to be much harder work.

The Imps beat Hereford 3-1 last Saturday at Sincil Bank and so will fancy their chances, although they were brought down to earth on Tuesday with a 5-0 home thumping from Bury.

Manager Steve Tilson has started to change Lincoln’s fortunes though and they have only lost two of the seven games since he took over from Chris Sutton. I suspect that Tilson’s priority this season is to ensure that they finish as high up the league on the meager resources they have.

Having said (or typed) that, both sides will be keen to be in the hat for Sunday’s 3rd round draw when the chance of a money spinning tie against one of the Premier League sides is in the offing. The revenue a clash against, say Arsenal, would generate could make life a lot easier for both clubs for the rest of the season.

I’ve seen both of these teams once so far this season and have to say that the Lincoln support at Wycombe was one of the highlights so far for me. There were only a handful in the away end, but they sang their hearts out, were far louder than the Adams Park faithful and stuck with their side and helped urge the players on to a 2-2 draw despite going behind twice.

Hereford’s fans will need to be at their vocal best and Jamie Pitman’s boys will need their support if they are to recover from a little blip of two defeats in the league – the other being a 4-0 drubbing of their own at Shrewsbury on Tuesday.

The Hereford lads were motivated to beat Hythe by the lack of respect shown by their non-league opponents in the last round. I’m sure that Lincoln will show them the professional respect they merit – Hereford just better make sure they aren’t shown the FA Cup door as well.

Jamie played over fifty times for Hereford before leaving for Yeovil and then Woking. He returned for the 2002/03 season and then left again to finish his playing days at Forest Green Rovers. In August 2008 he again returned to Edgar Street, but this time as the as club physiotherapist

And Pitman once scored an FA Cup goal to knock Hereford out of the competition. After the Hythe game he revealed :

“I played against Hereford for Woking back in 2000 to knock the club out of the Cup and I scored with a header on the far post which was unusual in itself.

When Graham Turner signed me a couple of years later he told me that that header had nearly broken the club financially as they needed the revenue a Cup run would have brought. It would have been ironic given how much I love the place if I’d been the one to drive it under.

Now though, it could be pay-back time and I’d love nothing better than to help Hereford into the next round.”

Wouldn’t it be just like the FA Cup to throw up a feel good story like that? Then again, the Imps will have something to say about matters … well their fans will anyway.