Display of predatory finishing
This report of Saturday's game comes from this morning's Times:
HEREFORD UNITED got their pursuit of Chester City and automatic promotion back on track in the finest manner possible as their forward pairing of Steve Guinan and David Brown feasted at Stonebridge Road on Saturday. The strikers grabbed two goals apiece in a display of predatory finishing, being in no mood to let gifts go to waste as the Gravesend & Northfleet defence committed a series of untimely mistakes.
In many ways, the first was the worst. No sooner had Ben Abbey touched in the ball to give Gravesend the lead in the fourth minute than Hereford equalised. A collective collapse of concentration from the restart of the sort that managers rant warnings about ended with Rob Purdie being brought down by Paul Wilkerson, the goalkeeper, and Tony James hammering home the penalty.
Hereford’s second came from a free kick taken after a lengthy delay during which Ben Smith was helped off the field with a dislocated right shoulder. A similar injury forced Smith to miss the first three months of last season and Hereford are awaiting the doctor’s verdict as to the seriousness of this latest setback. Michael Rose’s left-foot strike from 30 yards pinged off the inside of a post and Brown pounced to put away the rebound.
The third followed Lee Shearer presenting the ball to Brown, who slipped a pass to Guinan, who dipped his shoulder, shimmied and planted the ball past Wilkerson.
Abbey again exploited uncertainty in the Hereford defence to make it 3-2 in the 37th minute and raise Gravesend hopes going into the second half. They had, after all, drawn 3-3 away to Hereford in September. But when another blunder brought Hereford their fourth goal, in the 67th minute, the home team’s discipline and self- belief drained away. Lee Skinner was caught out by a cross, slipped and let Brown clear; his shot clipped Chris Moore on an ankle and curled cruelly away from Wilkerson.
The fifth goal saw Purdie turn and speed away from an ineffectual challenge down the right. From his cross, Brown committed Wilkerson before laying the ball off to Guinan for his partner to put away his second goal.
Andy Ford, the Gravesend manager, was not seeking to hide behind the disadvantage of being a part-time club up against full-time opponents. “It’s this home form that concerns me,” he said. “Away from home we can spoil things a bit easier. At home we’ve got to be a bit more creative and we’re lacking in that area sometimes.
“But I think today we had to look no further than our defending in individual cases. Their movement was too good for us today. Their front two were very, very good. They gave our back four a bit of a torrid time.”