Venue: Edgar Street
Tues 14th January 2003, 7.45pm kick-off.

Conditions: Dry, fairly cold
Ground: Heavy going with bare patches around goalmouths; cutting-up after recent bad weather

FA Trophy 3rd Round :
Hereford United 1-2 Yeovil Town

Att: 2,425

Referee: Mr S. Tanner. Assistants: Mr A Newell, Mr K Johnson. Fourth Official: Mr J Lambert

Bookings:
Yeovil: Darren Way (27 mins, foul)
Hereford: A. Tretton (6 mins, foul), M. Rose (68 mins, foul)

Line up : (3-4-1-2)


1. Chris Weale

2. Adam Lockwood
14. Roy O’Brien
5. Colin Pluck

10. Nick Crittenden
6. Darren Way
8. Lee Johnson
11. Michael McIndoe

20. Gavin Williams

25. Kirk Jackson
16. Andy Lindegaard

Substitutes: 15. Stephen Reed, 17. Tom White, 18. Kim Grant (sub 83 for Andy Lindegaard), 22. Stephen Collis, 24. Abdelhalim El Kholti (sub 46 for Nick Crittenden)

Hereford United: (4-4-2) 1 Matthew Baker 15 Richard Teesdale, 6 Tony James, 4 Andrew Tretton, 3 Michael Rose 12 Danny Williams, 7 Jamie Pitman, 8 Ben Smith, 11 Paul Parry 10 John Grant, 18 Steve Guinan
Subs : 14 Ken Griffiths (GK), 5 Ian Wright, 16 Rob Sawyers, 17 Rob Purdie (sub 66 mins for Purdie), 21 Michael Husbands (sub 72 mins for Grant)

Scorers: Colin Pluck (0-1, 2 mins), Adam Lockwood (0-2, 4 mins), Ben Smith (1-2, 20 mins)

This report courtesy of Robin Evans:

It is difficult to imagine a harder tie for Yeovil Town within the Southern Section of the FA Trophy 3rd Round draw. The road to (hopefully) Villa Park begins with a visit to Edgar Street to face Hereford United, who top the Conference form table with five wins and a draw from their last six matches, and 14 goals scored to just 1 conceded. The last meeting here between the sides was a goalless draw in September, and I’m sure many of us anticipated a similarly close affair tonight.

From the kick off Hereford pushed forward, but Yeovil fought back and persistence from the hard working Kirk Jackson forced the home side to concede a corner within the first minute. Michael McIndoe, Glovers captain for the night, swung the corner into the area and Colin PLUCK rose majestically to head home. 0-1 with, by my reckoning, just 75 seconds on the clock. Not a bad start.

Just a minute later the first minor fracas of the night happened after a foul on Gavin Williams. This was symptomatic of the niggly “punishment” he would receive all evening from his former team mates. His current side retaliated in the best possible way by finding the back of the net again. A shot which I credited to Lindy, but am assured was actually from Kirk Jackson, trickled against the post before rebounding into open play. First to react was Adam LOCKWOOD who rifled the ball past a despairing Baker to double the visitors’ lead. 0-2, and proof indeed that the best form of defence is attack!

With the home side clearly still stunned, it was probably a case of trying a little too hard when Andrew Tretton followed through quite unnecessarily in challenging Chris Weale and found himself in Mr Tanner’s book with only six minutes played.

After the first exhausting minutes it was inevitable that things would calm down a little, and for nearly a quarter of an hour a slightly more subdued encounter was evident. That is not to say that the game was without incident – far from it; a succession of Hereford free kicks around the ‘danger area’ outside the Yeovil box (or ‘Macca territory’ when the kicks are in our favour) were taken by Michael Rose, and two on target were well held by an impressive Weale; a good curler from the Yeovil captain was well held by Baker, but may have reminded the home fans what they were missing; good play from Lee Johnson allowed Gavin Williams to win a corner, and this was badly controlled by a Hereford defender, who seemed surprised to find the ball at his feet and momentarily looked close to increasing the Yeovil lead!

As the game progressed Hereford seemed to have stemmed the green and white flow and were certainly coming back into the game. Paul Parry looked particularly useful on the left wing, and he took on Nick Crittenden at every opportunity with honours just about even between the two players. A good defensive header by the reliable Adam Lockwood gave the home side a 17th minute corner, and from this a Danny Williams snap shot hit the bar. With confidence growing the whites pushed forward and a good cross from Williams found Ben SMITH in space, and his well placed header gave Weale no chance as the gap was reduced to one goal. Game on.

A seemingly good tackle by Darren Way resulted in both a Hereford free kick and a booking for him. This seemed more than a little harsh, but the man in the middle had consistently awarded rather more free kicks in favour of the home team than those of us in green felt were justified. Hereford made little of the free kick, and a fine crossfield ball by the inventive Lee Johnson in his own half allowed Gavin Williams to run into the area before shooting into the side netting.

The remainder of the half saw both sides press forward. Yeovil were denied a penalty when there appeared to be a handball by a Hereford defender in the 38th minute, but the home side had the better of the latter stages with Chris Weale making a good save and John Grant flicking the ball onto the outside of the post in added time.

Half Time: Hereford United 1 Yeovil Town 2

A tactical substitution at half time saw El Kholti replace Crittenden with the Glovers reverting to (pretty much) a 4 – 4 – 2 formation.

Expectation was that Hereford would come out and lay siege to the Yeovil goal for the second half. That did not happen for the first 40 minutes or so, and this was probably due to the fact that the Yeovil defence moved up to occupy a far less deep position combined with superb harrying and hassling by Way, Johnson, McIndoe, Williams and El Kholti in midfield. Lockwood, O’Brien and Pluck coped magnificently with the rare occasions when Hereford crossed the halfway line, allowing El Kholti room to move forward in attempts to utilise his speed.

Andy Lindegaard fired a great low shot after 48 minutes, which keeper Baker held at his second attempt with McIndoe in close attendance. Ten minutes later Lindy was clattered heavily whilst weaving across the edge of the Hereford area, but play continued as no foul was given. Further low shots from distance by both El Kholti and Way were well held by Matt Baker, and another effort from Lindegaard cleared the bar.

The men in green and white seemed to be in complete control and Graham Turner made a change by bringing on Rob Purdie for John Grant. The first task for Purdie was watching team mate Michael Rose being booked for a foul on Gavin Williams, and the resulting free kick saw Baker make a good save from McIndoe.

The 68th minute saw a heavy challenge on Darren Way by Danny Williams. Another minor fracas erupted and Hereford’s Williams certainly seemed to ‘raise his hands’, but escaped without even a yellow card. He endured just four minutes of booing from the travelling support before being wisely replaced by Michael Husbands.

Yeovil continued to dominate with Roy O’Brien getting forward for a good effort which seemed from my view point to have hit the post, but may possibly have been cleared by a defender.

Kim Grant replaced Andy Lindegaard after 83 minutes, and a couple of minutes later Lee Johnson floated a free kick over the bar. Darren Way flicked a ball through to Kim Grant, who chested down to Lee Johnson in a beautiful move which was only ended by a superb defensive tackle.

In the last few minutes Hereford pressed forward in the way which had been expected some 40 or so minutes earlier. With forwards finally running at the Yeovil defence a couple of very fine Pluck tackles and some astute work by my man-of-the-match Adam Lockwood kept Hereford at bay. One goal bound shot from just inside the penalty area was taken superbly by Chris Weale to cap a very fine performance. Suggestions that the goal conceded was in any way Weale’s fault should be taken with a VERY large pinch of salt as they obviously originate from someone who wasn’t there! I can assure you that Smith’s goal was very well taken, and although perhaps he should have been better marked that is not the responsibility of the goalkeeper!

Hereford’s last gasp effort to get back on levels terms was reduced to a penalty claim after an injury time tackle on Ben Smith by Kirk Jackson. The referee waved the claims away and I believe he was right to do so, but he may perhaps have been negatively influenced by shouts from the home support who seemed to call for ‘handball’ every time the ball went near a Yeovil defender in the two minutes of added time. Separating a genuine claim from the constant hopeful pleas cannot be easy for a match official.

Final score: Hereford United 1 Yeovil Town 2

All in all this was a very fine team performance with high praise for all players, a special ‘highly commended’ to Messrs. Weale, Pluck, Way and O’Brien and M.O.T.M. for Adam Lockwood who didn?t seem to put a foot wrong, pressed forward at every opportunity and even got his name on the score sheet.

Bring on the Morecambe.