Six years ago this evening Hereford FC won their first ever pre-season friendly at Malvern.
BN looks back.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Hereford FC Start Life With A Win
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| The First Half Line Up |
With Hereford kicking off
following a minutes silence in remembrance of the 7/7 attacks 10 years
ago today, it was a fairly slow start for both sides. However, in the
17th minute it was the Bulls who broke the deadlock. Sam Pearson, who
played for Pegasus Juniors towards the end of last season, had a
goal-bound shot which was handled on the line by the last man.
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| Sam Pearson Shoots Towards Goal |
Rather than award a penalty and
send the player off, the referee took the sensible option for a friendly
game by awarding Hereford their first ever goal without the ball
actually crossing the line.
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| The Malvern Keeper Kept The Ball Out Of The Goal After It Was Handled By A Malvern Defender |
Malvern equalised in the 39th
minute when a corner was met by Sam Reynolds who sent the ball into the
bottom left hand corner of the net with a smart swivelling volley.
Before the break though it was
Hereford who were next to score from a set piece. Purdie’s inswinging
corner was met by ex-Westfields man Joel Edwards at the far post; he
made no mistake in sending the ball across the line.
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| Joel Edwards Beats The Keeper |
HT: Malvern 1 – Hereford 2
Line-up: Harvey Rivers, Max Kontic-Caveney, Joel Edwards, Matt James, Tony James, Nathan Summers, Ben Miller, Rob Purdie, Sam Pearson, Dylan Bonella, Soloman Whitley.
At half time, manager Peter
Beadle completely changed his line-up, with only Harvey Rivers retaining
his place. He was called upon quickly though as within seconds of the
restart he denied Malvern their second. Both Sam Rathbone and Matt
Turner saw the subsequent efforts saved by Hereford’s stopper.
A corner for the Whites flicked
off a Hereford head to the left hand corner of the 18-yard box, where
Dale Hodge was on hand to control the ball and exquisitely curl the ball
into the top right hand corner past the static Malvern keeper. Up until
last season Hodge was playing at WMRL Division 2 side Kington Town.
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| Dale Hodge About To Score Hereford's Third Goal |
UITC Youth Team goalkeeper Jamez
Aurelius was named in tonight’s squad and came on for Harvey Rivers
midway through the second half.
Malvern got a goal back with a
nice lob over the new keeper. In the closing stages of the game Aurelius
denied Malvern an equaliser when he just got his fingertips to a shot
to divert the ball just wide of the upright. The resulting corner proved
fruitless for Malvern with the ball being well caught by the youth
teamer.
FT: Malvern 2 – Hereford 3
Line-up: Harvey Rivers, Will Haines, Adam Newbury, Jamie Gregory, Tom Moxam, Dale Hodge, Ryan Shaw, Nathan Hughes, Josh Emery, Sam Hunt.
Att: A record breaking 2,006.
Fantastic Workout Said Beadle
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| Peter Beadle In Deep Conversation Before Kick-Off |
After this evening's friendly at Malvern, Hereford FC manager Peter Beadle spoke to BN.
"Fantastic workout, really pleased with it," said Beadle.
"We were thinking that perhaps it had come too early because we've only had three days together.
"But the lads have worked really hard through the sessions we've had.
"I think tonight we saw the very
young ebbings of a new football club and a new era and some good young
talent and local talent as well which is nice.
"Sam Pearson who scored is from Pegasus, Dale Hodges scored in the second half is another local lad.
"When I say local we're talking within twenty miles of Hereford.
"The talent is out there, as they
have proved tonight, and if we can work with it and keep progressing
with it then we should have, hopefully, a tidy side.
"We've put two different teams out tonight and I think the average age of the second team that finished was probably 18 or 19.
"The young boy that went in goal
towards the end was 16. He's earned his chance to have a go. He's
trained with Harvey and worked really hard.
"The first half team were older as we had one or two senior players in their but they were still quite a young group.
"They shown a great start, lots of positives, there are a few bits we've got to work on and it wasn't the finished article.
"They showed a real desire to wear the shirt tonight which I'm delighted with."
Beadle was asked if there would be any signings before Saturday.
"I don't think so, I want to give
these boys the best chance. There will be some boys from tonight not
involved on Saturday, but will be next Tuesday.
"We want the boys to get a bit more game time, rather than half a game every week.
"We will give them a fair chance and then as we go through the week we will look to add to the group.
"At the moment nobody else is
coming in for Saturday. We are still talking to one or two people and
there are still a few things going on.
"We've still got four weeks to go so we've got plenty of time."