A draw at Lymington in the FA Cup yesterday afternoon brought much needed relief to the Hereford camp who are still without a win this season.
Although Lymington took the lead, two goals in two minutes in the middle of the first half put Hereford in front and at that stage one would have thought the result would not have been in doubt. But once again the Bulls failed to hold onto their lead and in the 66th minute Lymington levelled the scores. So a replay on Tuesday evening.
The game was played on a bone dry pitch which had a noticable slope towards the main stand. It was also one of the widest pitches played on by Hereford for some time.
Manager Josh Gowling made several chances to his starting eleven from the last time out with Krystian Pearce and Levi Andou making their first appearances. Also in the starting eleven was Maziar Kouyhar and there were seven subs on the bench. However both James Vincent and Zeli Ismail missed out with injuries.
Lymington kicked off and had a couple of half chances before Owen Fee opened the scoring. As in previous games recently Hereford's defence seemed at fault given how easy the chance looked.
The Bulls suffered another blow when recently signed Krystian Pearce had to come off.
On 15 minutes he pulled up and received some treatment then played on for a few more minutes before being replaced by Ben Pollock.
After the game manager Josh Gowling revealed that Pearce had had a niggle for the previous week or so but wanted to play.
Then several minutes of magic for the Bulls. And that came after a possible handball in the box.
Ryan Lloyd controlled the ball just inside the box and passed it to Miles Storey whose shot caught out Livingston keeper Ross Casey.
Just over a minute later the ball was once again in the back of the Lymington net. Storey charged down the left hand side and squared the ball to Tom Owen-Evans who turned it into goal.
Hereford should have put the game to bed but despite several chances, one in particular by Storey that went a yard wide and another when Dan Smith was one on one with the keeper, they couldn't add to their score and it remained 2-1 to the Bulls at half-time.
Hereford stated the second period quite brightly with Maziar Kouykar stinging the keeper's hands.
A few minutes later Luke Haines was knocked under the belt when going for a header. The referee called for the physio but brave Haines shouted out he was okay.
A couple of subs for both sides which included Ryan Mclean coming on for Kouyhar seemed to disrupt Hereford more than Lymington and it was the hosts who took advantage with 66 minutes on the clock.
Pollock slipped as he tried to the clear the ball and it fell to Harry McGrath who had no problem finding the back of the net with Hall beaten.
Lymington had one or two more half chances before their manager was shown a yellow card for his colourful language.
And the Hosts might have done better when a corner ball sailed across the front of goal.
Gowling brought on on-loan striker Ollie Hulbert in place of Dan Smith who continues to disappoint. And for the last few minutes of the game it looked like the Bulls could win the tie.
A goal mouth scramble with both Pollock and Hulbert involved saw the ball goes inches wide.
Finally Hulbert rose well to head the ball towards Casey, who had been lucky not to be booked for time-wasting, but the Lymington keeper was equal to it.
A draw was probably the right result on the day but one felt Hereford hadn't done quite enough research on Lymington.
Given how wide the pitch was it begs the question why Hereford didn't make more use of the space and also why were so many balls launched in the air, particularily by captain Jared Hodgkiss, when the team has the pace and ability to get past defenders.
Hereford: Hall, Hodgkiss, Hancox, Pearce, Owen-Evans, Storey, Andoh, Lloyd, Kouhyar, Smith. Subs: McLean, Liburd-Hines, Pollock, Hulbert, Fini, Pinchard, Whittinham.