Hereford United put in a poor performance at Edgar Street this afternoon and fell to their second defeat of the season. Newly promoted Grays Athletic looked a dangerous outfit that should do well in this league. However, they did not have to work too hard to gain victory today.
Manager Graham Turner kept the faith in the same side that defeated Crawley Town a week ago with Rob Purdie keeping his place in the middle of the park. The only change was on the bench where Darren Blewitt failed to recover from a foot injury and so Graham Evans took his place. Andy Ferrell was on the bench again; it is thought that he did not play today because Turner wants him to start against Tamworth, who will be a more physical side than Grays.
Hereford started brightly and were in control for the first quarter of an hour before disaster struck once again for Tony James. Jon Brady had fired an early shot over the bar before Guy Ipoua set up his strike partner Adam Stansfield with a ball in behind the defence, but Stansfield hit the side netting.
With fifteen minutes on the clock, Craig Mawson rolled the ball out to skipper James, who had been impressive until then, in the Hereford defence, and James was quickly closed down. Instead of clearing the ball to safety, or knocking it to Dean Beckwith who had given James an option to his left, he attempted to dribble the ball out of defence. He was soon tackled and Tony Battersby made no mistake in smashing the ball into the bottom corner beyond the reach of Mawson. This is not the first time that James has stupidly lost the ball in defence this season, leading to a goal for the opposition.
It was down hill for Hereford from then on, as heads dropped and Grays got a foot hold in the game. Chances were few and far between for the remainder of the half; Dennis Oli saw a shot after a Gray's break saved by Mawson while Ipoua's header from Ryan Green's cross was no trouble for Ashley Bayes in the visitors goal. On the stroke of half time Brady came close again with a free kick that was not too far away from the intended top corner.
A far more eventful second period started with Stuart Thurgood curling an effort just wide. Brady was close yet again to equalising soon after; his half volley was just inches over the cross bar from twenty yards. John Nutter's left footed free kick on the flank bypassed everyone in the Hereford box although Gary Hooper almost connected with a header at the far post.
Rob Purdie spread play to Green on the right and the Welshman burst towards the box was ended as he was fouled twenty yards out. Alex Jeannin's free kick hit the wall though and a Gray's break away ended with man of the match Dean Beckwith heading a dangerous cross behind. Craig Stanley replaced the injured Rob Purdie with a hour gone. Stansfield headed Jeannin's free kick goal bound but once again Bayes wasn't troubled, while at the other end a misunderstanding between James and Beckwith resulted in a good recovering challenge from the latter.
This may have been the final straw for Turner and within minutes he replaced his captain, James, with Danny Carey-Bertram as The Bulls reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Carey-Bertram on the left wing. Green kept the score at 1-0 when he cleared a header off the line following a corner before John Martin hit the post from close range, when he really should have doubled the visitors advantage. United broke quickly but Carey-Bertram's cross was cleared, triggering a counter attack for Athletic. Substitute Jamie Slabber beat the offside trap and had a clear run on goal, but shot wide with Tamika Mkandawire putting in a last ditch tackle to put him off.
Hereford had their best spell of the game after this with some good chances to level things up, but thanks to Bayes they failed to do so. Brady's corner was knocked on before Mkandawire's shot was blocked. It fell to Stansfield and his shot was blocked too before Beckwith volleyed over. At the other end a double goal line clearance by Green saved United further embarresment before Hereford felt sure they should have had a penalty. A shot by Carey-Bertram, after Stanley's free kick, hit the arm of a defender but the referee dismissed appeals.
After hitting the defenders hand, the ball fell back to Stanley, who saw his drive go out for a corner. Mkandawire came close with a low left footed drive from twenty five yards, that almost caught Bayes unaware. However, the ex-Woking stopper scrambled across his line to push it out for a corner. Carey-Bertram then went close at the game came to an end after some good, patient, build-up play, when Stansfield knocked a short ball to him in the box but once again Bayes tipped the ball wide.
Hereford failed to make use of the five added minutes at the end and were punished right at the end. Martin had hit the side netting already before a cross in from the right was tapped in from close range by Hooper much to the delight of the 57 away fans. A fair number of the home fans in a crowd of 2,997, rose to their feet and left the stadium before the end of the game.
All in all, this was a poor performance by Hereford and they will definatly not be able to afford many more of that sort if they are to meet their ambition of automatic promotion this season. There were far too many players on the pitch today who, for one reason or another, did not seem to put the effort required in. Although short term memories of this result may be forgotten with a win at Tamworth on Monday, it may prove more costly come the end of the season.
HUFC Team: Mawson, Mkandawire, James, Beckwith, Jeannin, Green, Coldicott, Purdie, Brady, Stansfield, Ipoua. Subs: Brown, Stanley, Ferrell, Carey-Bertram, Evans.
GAFC: Bayes, Bruce, Stuart, Mawer, Nutter, Hooper, Thurgood, Martin, Poole, Oli, Battersby. Subs: Brennan, Matthews, Kightly, Ayres, Slabber.