For today's archive article BN goes back to March 15th 2003 and a game for Hereford at Scarborough.
Unfortunately Hereford lost 2-1, let's hope they do better today.
'Are you going to Scarborough fair' sung Simon and Garfunkel. Well, the fair didn't look too impressive, so we went to the McCain Stadium instead, and saw Hereford go down to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Seadogs.
It wasn't a pretty affair, as Hereford missed both Tony James at the back at John Grant in attack, but Scarborough were the side that took their opportunities when they did arrive, even through Matt Baker saved a penalty and the second Seadogs goal had a hint of offside to it.
Hereford, whose side was made up completely of free transfers, had the best of the early running, and Steve Guinan forced a fine save out of Scarborough goalkeeper Andy Woods when he connected onto a through ball from Andy Tretton. Guinan had another shot blocked on twenty six minutes, and five minutes after that, Ben Smith's through ball from the edge of the box saw Guinan header well over the crossbar. However, Boro' had their fair share of chances in the opening period. On fourteen minutes, Gary Cohen nodded a free header a yard wide of the target when it looked easier to score, and David Pounder gave the home side the lead on thirty three when Mohammed Sillah flicked through a ball to him in the box. Pounder, unmarked, was given the easy job of turning into the back of the net.
At the break, though, United were level. A Guinan cross two minutes into injury time from the right hand side found Paul Parry in the box, whose downwards header bounced under Woods and into the back of the net.
Normally, Hereford come out brighter for the second half but it seemed to be Scarborough who took the initiative, with Scott Kerr firing wide of the target on fifty one minutes, and Cleveland Taylor capitalised on a poor Matt Baker clearance and then a slip from Michael Rose to fire just over the crossbar. When Matt Clarke brought down Gary Cohen in the box on sixty two minutes, there were flashbacks to the Yeovil match and Tony James' last minute sending off. Not today, however, as Clarke received just a yellow card and Paul Shepherd's penalty was superbly pushed away by Baker, who got down low to his right.
Five minutes later, though, Taylor put Scarborough into the lead. Gary Cohen broke through the United defence in an onside position, but as the last man he knocked the ball to Taylor, who beat Baker from close range. However, as Cohen was the last man, Taylor appeared to be offside but the referee or his assistant failed to notice him.
United fought on, looking for an equaliser, and Pitman's volley ten minutes from time was well pushed over by Woods but Hereford couldn't find a way through. The 130 or so United fans in the crowd of 1,179 will be disappointed with the result, but Scarborough fought well to defend their lead.
| Scarborough | Hereford United |
| Andy Woods | Matt Baker |
| Paul Dempsey | Matt Clarke |
| Mark Price | Michael Rose |
| Mohammed Sillah | Jamie Pitman |
| Gareth Stoker (captain) | Ian Wright (captain) |
| Olivier Brassart | Andy Tretton |
| Scott Kerr | Danny Williams |
| David Pounder | Steve Guinan |
| Paul Shepherd | Ben Smith |
| Gary Cohen (off, 83 minutes) | Rob Purdie (off, 75 minutes) |
| Cleveland Taylor | Paul Parry |
| Subs | Subs |
| Glen Downey | Jay Lovett (on, 75 minutes) |
| Leigh Walker | Ken Griffiths |
| Darren Connell (on, 83 minutes) | Rob Sawyers |
| Bimbo Fatokun | Richard Teesdale |
| Richard O'Kelly | |
| Yellow cards | Yellow cards |
| Gareth Stoker (unsporting behaviour, 69 minutes) | Jamie Pitman (foul, 37 minutes) |
| Gary Cohen (unsporting behaviour, 74 minutes) | Matt Clarke (foul, 62 minutes) |
| Red cards | Red cards |
| - | - |
| Scorers | Scorers |
| David Pounder (33 minutes) | Paul Parry (45 minutes) |
| Cleveland Taylor (67 minutes) | |
| Man of the Match | Matt Baker |
| Attendance | 1179 |
| Referee | Mr. R. Booth (Mansfield) |
O'Kelly disappointed by result
After
today's 2-1 defeat at Scarborough, Hereford United coach Richard
O'Kelly was disheartened by the outcome of the match but confident that
the Bulls will bounce back.
"With everything that had gone on this week, with travelling up on
the Friday and making sure we do things right, we were just looking to
repay the good faith that was shown to us by the supporters and come
home with something," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "In the
first twenty minutes, we were comfortable and we looked in control of
the game. From their first attack on goal, they scored and a few of the
lads were looking for an offside decision but it didn't happen. We got
a deserved equaliser from Paul Parry but I don't think we started the
second half."
The winning Scarborough goal was created by a combination of Gary
Cohen and Cleveland Taylor, and had a hint of offside to it which was
not given. O'Kelly continued: "They were in acres of space and you're
thinking, surely they must be offside and the general concensus here is
that the linesman got it wrong on a few occasions."
John Grant still has two matches left to run on his current
suspension, leaving Steve Guinan as the only recognised attacker in the
United squad. Graham Turner has been looking at players, said O'Kelly.
"We definitely need to bring someone it but it's got to be the right
person," he commented. "I know Graham is doing his best to bring a new
face in and if that happens it might give the squad a boost."