Nigel Preece watched Hereford defeat Bromley this afternoon in the FA Cup.
Sometimes, just sometimes, football matches remind you why we make the effort to drag ourselves round the country to watch our football teams.
I left home at about 8am with hope as always but without much expectation. The injury list, the standard of the opposition, the dodgy pitch, it all pointed to a difficult afternoon.
Made it to Bromley just after midday, a couple of decent pubs later and it was off to the ground to be presented with a line of police, friendly stewards, albeit a fairly thorough search, and an open away terrace, my old HUFC cap did its job in the sunshine for an hour or so before the rain hit us.
The same makeshift centre half partnership as last week, good to see Hodgkiss back, especially as the impression given on his injury was he could be out for a long time. Haines returned in front of the back four, no doubt enjoying the relief from nappy changing duty, congratulations young man.
We speculated beforehand who might play in goal, our latest custodian was some bloke called Eve, not Trevor as I surmised, though Shoestring may be appropriate in the circumstances, but former Spennymoor keeper Dale Eve.
A fairly uneventful first half, Bromley with the wind, sort of, it was gusty and across the pitch as much as down. There were few chances but those the home team had were from our errors, perhaps caused by some uncertainty with the pitch, the best of those chances was when, ex Kings Lynn striker, Marriot dispossessed Dale Eve just outside our area, strode towards goal but thankfully shot wide.
In a portent of the weather to come the sprinklers were turned on at half time, as much water seemed to shower the away terrace as the pitch from one of them.
Hope turned to excitement early in the second half; a foul on the ever willing McLean just outside the area, followed by a beautiful Bale esque free kick from his fellow countryman Harry Pinchard. Keeper had no chance. A deserved goal for Pinchard, of all the players on both sides, he looked the most comfortable controlling the ball on the 3G pitch.
It was certainly backs to the wall after that, waves of Bromley attacks were mostly repulsed by organised and determined defence without too many serious alarms, emergency keeper Dale Eve demonstrating excellent handling on several occasions.
On a rare Hereford attack we won a throw in right in front of the away terrace by the corner flag, inexplicably it was awarded to the home side, ex Bulls defender Chris Bush (bizzarely booed by some …. he was part of the Aldershot great escape after all) took it quickly and in 30 seconds or so it was 1-1.
As the rain started to lash over the pitch, home fans in the open were able to retreat to covered areas, no such respite for the faithful away fans as we watched in trepidation for perhaps the inevitable outcome. Nevertheless the lads clung on and as the clock ticked towards 88 minutes we dared to hope a replay might be achievable.
Another swift Bulls break from the back, a cynical foul on the edge of the Bromley area, oddly the free kick was given five or six yards further away from goal than the offence, perhaps too far for another Gareth Bale style free kick from our Harry.
A corner was the result, great delivery, knocked back across goal and Pendley delivered the wonderful coup de grace from a few yards.
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| Bush Appeared To Give The Corner Away |
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| Pinchard Took The Corner |
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| It Was Cleared |
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| But Only As Far As A Hereford Player |
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| It Was Cleared Again But Only As Far As Pendley Who Scored (Sadly No Pictures Of The Goal) |
We survived the nervy last few minutes, we may even have got a third goal as we broke away from a corner with the home keeper still in our area; but the ref blew the final whistle sparing Bromley further humiliation, not that any of us on the bouncing away terrace cared. A lovely post whistle celebration between supporters and players before we returned to the delightfully named The Bitter End for a couple of swift post match beers.
There was a short discussion on Man of the Match, the two centre halves were mentioned, outstanding performances by both, Pinchard for his free kick and being one of the few players on the park able to instantly master the pitch, but if there has to be an award above a top team effort it should go to new keeper, Dale Eve; an odd style the way he takes the ball in front of him rather than letting the ball come in (at least that's what it looked to me) but every cross seemed to stick to him as if he had Velcro on his gloves; he clearly gave confidence to those in front of him and would be my MoM.
Fingers crossed we get a decent home draw in the first round.