BRISTOL ROVERS (away - FA Cup) 05/01/07
Trips to the Memorial Ground, Bristol, seem to bring the worst out of Hereford United. September’s League Two visit saw the Bulls lose after taking the lead, but another defeat here was of greater magnitude, ending what had been a promising FA Cup run.
A dour game was settled by a first-half Richard Walker penalty, who had done the damage with two goals for the Pirates earlier in the season. It was more than enough to see Rovers into round four, as Hereford barely threatened the home goal throughout.
Rob Purdie shot narrowly wide early on, but generally the Bulls lacked the creativity to break down the Rovers defence. Tim Sills again worked hard with little reward, heading over the bar and scuffing a shot wide of the post.
Rovers however scored what proved to be the winner twenty minutes in. Craig Disley looked to get onto the end of a pass after stealing ahead of Phil Gulliver, but was brought down by Hereford goalkeeper Wayne Brown before he could get the ball. Referee Scott Mathieson this time had no hesitation making his mind up: earlier, he went to book Simon Travis for a lunge at Aaron Lescott despite the foul being committed by Trent McClenahan. After failing to make his mind up about who had committed the offence, no yellow card was produced by Mathieson, to the annoyance of Rovers boss Paul Trollope. He would, however, have been pleased to see former Aston Villa striker Walker smash the penalty straight down the middle to put his side in front.
Brown made amends for his indiscretion later in the half, when he pulled off a terrific full-length save to deny Rickie Lambert what would have been only his second goal since joining Rovers in August. At the other end, the unlikely figure of McClenahan came closest to getting an equaliser for the Bulls, but even his near-post effort was comfortable enough for Rovers keeper Steve Phillips. Phillips did not endear himself to the visiting supporters in a huge crowd of 8,978 with a rather theatrical reaction to an innocuous-looking challenge from Sills, requiring several minutes of medical attention for seemingly very little.
As in the League encounter at the same ground earlier in the season, Hereford’s second-half performance was simply not good enough. The hopeful long balls pumped forward were easy for the central defensive partnership of Steve Elliott and Craig Hinton to deal with, despite both players looking ill at ease with opponents running at them. As it was, nothing got past them all night, with Phillips not facing a shot until the dying minutes.
Rovers had chances to extend their lead. Walker and Lambert were both inches away from putting in a teasing low cross from Lescott, and skipper Stuart Campbell fired narrowly wide after the visiting defence had fallen asleep.
Brown then had to be at his best to make two saves from Walker to keep the game alive. Firstly he produced an excellent acrobatic save to keep out a close-range header from the Pirates’ top scorer, then came racing off his line to make a brave save at the striker’s feet when the Hereford defence was again caught napping.
The opportunity was still there for the Bulls to force a replay, as they were still only a goal behind. An equaliser never looked like coming, but had Hereford’s top scorer Purdie not made a complete hash of an injury time chance - shooting wide from fifteen yards with just Phillips to beat - an unjust draw would have been secured. Similarly, justice was done when Alan Connell’s late header looped weakly into Phillips’ arms.
The Bulls are now left to push on for a play-off place. Certainly their defence looks good enough to keep them from being embroiled in a relegation battle - Walker’s penalty being the only goal conceded in five matches - but, as was painfully demonstrated here, the midfield lacks the creativity to make chances for their highly-rated strikers to put away.
Team: Brown, McClenahan, Mkandawire, Gulliver, Rose, Travis, Ferrell (sub Fleetwood), Webb (sub Williams), Purdie, Sills, Connell. Subs not used: Thompson, Giles, Jeannin.
Star man: Wayne Brown