Herefordshire | Archive | 2006 | November | 13
From the Hereford Times, first published Monday 13th Nov 2006.
HEREFORD United earned a second crack at an appearance in round two of the FA Cup with a battling display at Gay Meadow.
The Bulls, without loan players John Eustace and Neil MacKenzie as well as Stuart Fleetwood who was ruled out with a throat infection, needed to show all their resolve against the home side who, like United boast a formidable FA Cup tradition.
But Andy Ferrell, Richard Rose and Tim Sills, who replaced the absent trio, joined their colleagues in providing an exciting tie which could have gone either way.
It was certainly a performance to hearten Hereford manager Graham Turner, who was returning to the club where he made his name as a manager more than 20 years ago.
The Bulls chief had only taken a United team to Gay Meadow twice and both of those previous visits had ended in 4-1 defeats, so this was a substantial improvement.
It was two of the returning players who set up the first opening on three minutes.
Ferrell did well to charge down a clearance and the ball fell to Sills who snatched at the chance and sent a volley wide of the target.
But the former Aldershot striker should have done better on 10 minutes when he got on the end of a Rose cross but again volleyed wide from a great position.
Shortly afterwards, however, Hereford lived dangerously when a scramble in the Bulls' goalmouth ended with the ball bouncing clear from the bar before being hacked to safety.
Both clubs had their share of the play before United wasted another excellent chance to take the lead on 32 minutes.
Rob Purdie, who had a fine game on the right side of midfield, stole the ball from goalkeeper Scott Shearer on the edge of the area and crossed to Alan Connell. Unfortunately, the former Torquay man failed to get a clean connection with his volley and the ball flew wide.
Just before the break, Hereford had another let off when Stewart Drummond's 15-yard shot came back off the bar.
The second period failed to bring quite as much in the way of goalmouth action but Hereford had the better of what there was.
Andy Williams sliced wide in the first minute and a couple of shots from Purdie flew past the target.
The best efforts came in the final 15 minutes when goalkeeper Shearer twice came to Town's rescue. On 78 minutes, the keeper dived to hold Dean Beckwith's header from a Purdie free-kick. Then, in the final minute, Shearer produced an even better stop when he flew to his left to push away Connell's volley.
Hereford: Brown; Mkanda-wire, Gulliver, Beckwith; Purdie, Rose, Ferrell, Jeannin; Connell; Sills, Williams. Subs not used: Thompson, Sheldon, Gwynne, McClenahan, Webb.
Attendance: 5,574.
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