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| Rob Purdie Led Out Hereford This Afternoon |
The referee deemed Hereford’s kit to be too similar to Shepshed’s black and white striped home kit, forcing the Bulls to don the host’s yellow away strip.
The encounter between champions Hereford and 4th-placed Dynamo started slowly, with a number of offside flags against Hereford.
In the 13th minute, Sirdic Grant’s well-worked cross took a number of deflections before trickling through to Mike Symons at the far post, but his shot from an acute angle went wide of the upright.
There were few chances throughout the half, with the next effort on goal coming in the 27th minute when John Mills’ dragged his shot from the left of the box just wide.
But 2 minutes later Mills did find the back of the net to open the scoring. Mills’ 30-yard strike, left Dynamo stopper Jack Drury watching on helplessly as the ball flew in the top left hand corner of the net.
Then with 32 minutes on the clock, Mills grabbed his 52nd goal of the season. A Jimmy Oates throw deep into the box was met with a flicked header from Mike Symons, for Mills to poke across the line from close range.
Before half time, Jimmy Oates tried to grab his first league goal for Hereford, taking a free kick following a foul on Sirdic Grant; but the Australian saw his effort from 20-yards sail too high to trouble Drury.
HT: Shepshed Dynamo 0 - Hereford 2
Pete Beadle made two substitutions at the start of the second period, not wanting to risk the already booked Jimmy Oates and Rob Purdie, introducing Joel Edwards and Anthony Robbins respectively. Another change was then forced upon the Bulls 6 minutes after the restart, with Nathan Summers replacing the injured Jamie Willets.
Hereford started the half strongly having a number of chances in the opening stages, with Drury being the busier of the two keepers. Sirdic Grant did well to make progress down the right wing before cutting into the box. The keeper then made a fine save palming away Grant’s right-footed shot, as Shepshed cleared the ball ahead of Symons.
As the hour mark passed, against the run of play the hosts managed to pull a goal back through substitute Sam Moore. As Moore broke away on a solo run down the left, he beat both James Bowen and Ryan Green as he drifted into the box, sending a shot low across Hereford's keeper Martin Horsell to narrow the deficit.
In the 68th minute John Mills was unlucky not to grab his hat trick, after running half the length of the pitch his strike took a deflection off the last man for a corner. Aaron Birch's inswinging delivery was knocked around in the area before being cleared, with a strong penalty shout being dismissed by the referee in the process.
With 77 minutes on the clock, Hereford regained their 2 goal lead thanks to Sirdic Grant. As Grant latched onto a great through ball from Aaron Birch, he had time to compose himself in front of goal before firing low past the keeper for his second goal since joining the Bulls.
Chances for both sides dried up as the half entered the dying stages, with Hereford seemingly content to see the game out, taking home the final 3 points of the season.
FT: Shepshed Dynamo 1 - Hereford 3
Att: 1,213
Shepshed Dynamo: Drury, Rigby, Rawdon, Craven, Hohn (c), Roberts, Porter, Whymark, Langham, Read, Staniland.
Subs: O’Grady, Richards, Moore, Middleton, Dunn.
Hereford: Horsell, Oates (Edwards – 46’), Bowen, Purdie (c) (Robbins – 46’), Green, Willets (Summers – 51’), Grant, Birch, Mills, Tumelty, Symons.
Subs not used: Bundu, Haysham.