GO ON, stick your hand up if you gave Hyde a cat in hell’s chance in the Blue Square Bet Premier this season.
No show? Thought not, because like me, the Tigers’ former manager Gary Lowe – who quit soon after winning BSB North, remember, with the £160,000 budget one of the reasons – and many others, you’d have thought the little Tameside club were going up to make up the numbers.
Not so thus far with a man at the helm who knows a thing or two about being in this situation, having been part of the Farsley Celtic side that started their only Conference Premier season brightly, then faded to suffer immediate relegation.
Of course, Scott McNiven’s side might still go down. They are currently in the bottom four, after all, and they will find it tough to maintain the current form that has seen them win four and lose just once in their last six matches.
But victories over the top two in that sequence, at home to Grimsby last month and then at Newport County last Saturday, show that the Ewen Fields side have more about them than many anticipated.
I saw them win 1-0 at Cambridge United on October 27 and they were excellent. U’s boss Richard Money said that the league table was lying at that point, because their position at the bottom hid how handy Hyde were.
It was the 3-2 defeat at Ebbsfleet a fortnight ago – or more the reaction to it – that has ex-Oxford, Mansfield and Morecambe full-back MicNiven believing his side have turned a corner, however.
“If you’d have given me four points out of six from the two games post-Ebbsfleet, I’d have snapped your hand off,” McNiven told me after his side’s midweek draw at home to an Alfreton side in good nick themselves.
“We seem to have turned a corner. I think we’ve adapted to the level and we’ve got to keep the consistency levels up.
“Ebbsfleet was a good learning curve for the lads. We went two up and then we switched off; thought the game was easy because we’d won three on the trot.
“It made the lads realise that you can’t just switch it on and off at this level. Teams are much better than that and you have to give them respect. In the long run, losing that game might have done us a favour and as angry as I was at the time, we’ve bounced back.”
McNiven acknowledges that much of Hyde’s hope of staying up will depend on the January transfer window. Fellow BSBP clubs are already sniffing around striker Scott Spencer, who has benefitted from having ten-goal veteran Phil Jevons alongside him.
Flabbergasted
At Cambridge, I picked out Hyde’s ‘Iniesta’ – 20-year-old Liam Tomsett – as star man. Winger Ryan Crowther scored the winner, while Ben Dennis, 19, was top drawer at centre-half.
All three are loanees, from Blackpool, Fleetwood and Bolton Wanderers respectively, while injured goalkeeper Dave Carnell has been replaced in recent weeks by Blackburn’s Christopher Dilo, 18.
While McNiven retained eight of Lowe’s champions – crucial to maintaining a modicum of momentum – the low-cost loans have been massive.
His assistant, former Aston Villa and Sunderland midfielder Gavin McCann, coaches at Bolton’s academy and McNiven says: “I like young kids who want to get out there and play, because you learn more at this level than you do in Under-21 football. I don’t care what any academy manager says.
“Gavin even goes along with it. He’s trying to get the good young kids at Bolton into us, and he’s flabbergasted that the coaches don’t use us more.
“Chris has done great in goal. He’s a French youth international, but he’s embraced the football – he’s loving the battle. It’s not often you see that from academy keepers who’ve come from abroad. They’re often quite happy to sit there and play out their Under-21 football in front of nobody.
“Even the likes of Ben, he’s coming on leaps and bounds, and he wasn’t even really getting in the Under-21 squad at Bolton. Now when he goes back he’ll be stronger fitter and mentally a bit more street wise than the average Under-21 player, who’s just used to playing the FA based pass-it football.”
From what I saw, the youngsters fit in well because McNiven and McCann want their team to pass it, too. It remains to be seen whether they pass the ultimate test and survive over 46 games.
In their current form, however, some people are getting one in the eye from the Tigers. I’ll hold my hand up to being one of them.
Master Abbott Is Still Up For The Cup
THERE must be a big FA Cup game around the corner – Gary Abbott’s name has suddenly appeared on a scoresheet again!
The Welling, Enfield and Aldershot legend apparently retired following a serious neck operation five years ago, but that didn’t stop him pulling on the boots again at 48 and scoring with his first touch for Hastings United in their 6-4 win over Three Bridges on Tuesday.
The Pilot Field club – the lowest-ranked side left in the FA Cup second round – have had a fixture and injury pile-up with the trip to Blue Square Bet North side Harrogate approaching next Saturday.
Player-boss Sean Ray and top scorer Bradley Goldberg have been struggling with knocks, and the pair will see a Harley Street specialist tomorrow – organised by Goldberg’s dad, Bromley manager Mark – in the hope of being fit for the trip to Yorkshire.
Abbott, Ray’s assistant, signed a registration form last week and made a swift impact after entering the fray as an 82nd-minute sub in the Ryman League Cup tie, which was United’s sixth game in 18 days.
“I miss playing so much and it felt so good,” said Abbott. “I don’t feel any different to when I was playing regularly, it’s not like I’m fat or anything. I might be 48 but I’ve never had pace, I just know where to be in the box.”
Abbott reached the third round with Enfield in 1994-95, but missed out on playing at Leicester after being sent off in the second round replay at Torquay.
He had scored in the initial 1-1 draw at Southbury Road, though.
And you can bet that when they sit in the spa pool at Headlam Hall on Friday night, he’ll be reminding Ray of that Cup pedigree to get himself on the teamsheet once again!
