Bulls News: Kempston Rovers 0

A First Goal For Lance Smith Who Came On As A Sub

In Saturday's second qualifying round of the FA Cup, one change was made to the Hereford starting XI that beat Stratford Town 5-2 midweek. With Gethyn Hill returning to parent club Weston-Super-Mare, Mike Symons made his first start since August 17th.

Step four side Kempston provided the first threat of the afternoon, a dangerous run down the left by skipper Ash Fuller saw him beat a number of Bulls players. After finding Ben Shepherd with a neat ball, his shot was high and wide of Horsell's goal.

At the other end of the pitch, Garyn Preen tested home keeper Martin Conway with a powerful volley. Jimmy Oates' cross from the right was met with a clean strike from Preen, with the keeper smothering his effort from 12-yards.

As the rain started to fall in Bedfordshire, it didn’t help an already saturated pitch at Kempston’s Hillgrounds home. Despite a number of crosses into the box, they were easily claimed by the keeper.

A foul on Jimmy Oates with 30 minutes on the clock saw the visitors awarded a free kick on the edge of the area, but Mike McGrath’s delivery sailed behind for a goal kick.

In the 37th minute, Garyn Preen scored his fourth goal in a Hereford shirt to break the deadlock. After some good build-up play from the visitors, Mike Symons did well to bring down Calvin Dinsley’s cross. As he played the ball back to Preen, his right-footed strike beat the stationary keeper at the near-post.

Before half time, a sublime piece of play between Garyn Preen and John Mills saw Preen almost grab a second, but the keeper saved the effort with his feet.

HT: Kempston Rovers 0 - Hereford 1

The Bulls showed their attacking intent from the restart, as Mike McGrath went close with a headed effort. Keyon Reffell’s neat cross from the right was met by McGrath, but the goal-bound effort took a deflection off Mike Symons to go narrowly wide.

In the 49th minute, James Bowen was impeded within the 18-yard box with the referee pointing immediately to the penalty spot. John Mills stepped up, and made no mistake in firing the ball straight down the middle and past the keeper to double the lead.

In the 57th minute, Mike Symons saw a scrappy shot cleared off the line by Robbie Goodman after being set up by Jimmy Oates.

Seven minutes later, the home side were left appealing to the referee after a second Hereford penalty. Kyal McNulty was shown a yellow card for what appeared to be a clean tackle to dispossess John Mills. Mills once again stepped up, this time dispatching the spot kick into the top left-hand corner of the net.

Martin Horsell then pulled off a fine save to deny Kempston’s Grant Fryer and keep the clean sheet intact.

Five minutes from time, James Bowen’s cross was only cleared as far as Mike Symons on the edge of the area. After bringing the ball under control, Symons’ shot stung the hands of the keeper as he tipped the ball over the bar.

The Bulls’ place in the next round was then sealed with substitute Lance Smith’s first goal of the season. A long ball to Lance Smith on the halfway line, saw him breakaway towards goal. And with only the backtracking keeper left to beat, he had little difficulty in finding the bottom left-hand corner of the net.