The last time Hereford played Gillingham was in September 2011.
A look back to September 17th 2011
Bulls humiliated at home
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| Ryan Green Captained Hereford |
As
I drove home after a couple swift ones in The Barrels I considered the
possibility of simply reporting the score with a short comment reading
"Draw your own conclusions".
However, there was a little more to this afternoon's almost record defeat. Firstly,
Jamie Pitman did make some brave decisions in his team selection by
including the returning Rob Purdie at right back, moving young Will
Evans to central defence in place of Michael Townsend and recalling
Harry Pell and Sam Winnal to the starting line-up at the expense of
Facey – who dropped to the bench – and Colbeck who was reported to be
suffering from a virus.
The Bulls started as brightly as the visitors and for the first fifteen minutes there were signs of a workmanlike performance. Rob
Purdie showed attacking intent by getting forward at every opportunity
to support Barkhuizen and the early movement from Winnal and Arquin
showed promise. However, there
was always the feeling that The Bulls were a fragile outfit and when
Ryan Green slipped to let in West Ham loanee Frank Nouble for the first
on eighteen minutes it was only the start of catalogue of mistakes and
poor decisions.
Garry
Richards added a second six minutes later when he too easily beat Harry
Pell to a far post header and when Clist lost possession in midfield,
The Gills broke quickly and Charlie Lee’s driven cross was deflected
into his own net by Heath.
In
between, a Pell effort went narrowly the wrong side of the upright and a
promising move down the left came to nothing when Heath's cross failed
to beat the first defender.
HT Bulls 0 Gills 3
Early
in the second period, Nouble was gifted a free header from 10 yards and
although Cornell was able to palm the effort away for a corner, the
resultant flag kick produced the forth goal. The
ball was cleared only as far as Jackman at the corner of the penalty
box and he curled a shot past Cornell into the far corner of the net.
Harry Pell went down in the box and the referee awarded a spot-kick. Pell
picked himself up and asked to take the kick but after some squabbling
the normally reliable Rob Purdie saw his kick clip the bar and go over. Surely decisions like this should have been made long before kick-off?
Cornell
tipped a rasping shot over the bar but contributed to score line when
he misjudged a speculative distance effort from Whelpdale and the ball
bobbled over him into the net for number five. Payne
added the sixth four minutes later before Sam Winnal scored arguably
the best goal of the game when he cracked home a twenty-yard free-kick
consolation with three minutes remaining.
The game was watched by 1848 with 255 in the visitors' area.
Reality Check Needed says Pitman
Under pressure Hereford United manager Jamie Pitman admits that life is difficult at present.
"Everybody has got to have a little bit of a reality check," Pitman told BBC Hereford and Worcester.
"We have eight players on two year contracts, the budget is not the biggest in the League, and I'm trying to work with that.
"You try to sign players and seven centre-halves you try to get in over
the course of the week, none of them want to come. It's so difficult.
"All you can do is go with the ones that you have got and believe that they are capable of getting you out of trouble."