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SOUTHPORT (home) 9/11/02 Yet another frustrating afternoon for Hereford United after high-fliers Southport left Edgar Street with all three points. Southport's hard-working defence left the home side frustrated time and again and won the match for them. In fact, it is hard to believe that the same side were beaten 6-0 not so long ago by Yeovil Town. The 'Sandgrounders' included former Hereford player Chris Lane in their side, who featured as a right wing-back. The opening exchanges were fairly even, with neither side seemingly wanting to have a shot at goal. Steve Whitehall had an effort after fifteen minutes, when he hit the ball just over the bar from twenty yards. Southport had an excellent opportunity to go in front after a very rare mistake by Tony James, who gave the ball away to Whitehall. The former Oldham striker rolled the ball through to an unmarked Steve Soley, who promptly slipped over and had the ball hit him in the face. Southport nearly rued that miss when Hereford swiftly broke clear, a move which culminated in Chukki Eribenne hitting the Southport crossbar from ten yards. Although Hereford worked hard to create chances, they almost always without exception ended up with a shot that either ended up going straight to goalkeeper Kevin Welsby, or ended up with the ball being cleared by a Southport defender. Paul Parry had a couple of high efforts that Welsby had to cling on to. Eribenne did well to get the ball past Barry Jones, but with the angle narrowing he could only pull it back into the grateful arms of the Southport custodian. The only shot he had to dive to save was from Danny Williams's low, skidding twenty-five yard drive that he comfortably gathered. Southport seemed content to play the counter attacking game, and it was no surprise that the half time score was 0-0. What was surprising however was the fact that the visitors took the lead with the first clear goalscoring opportunity of the second half. Ian Wright wildly sliced a cross from the right out for a corner. A scramble in the box followed from Steve Pickford's flag-kick, and at the third attempt the ball was forced home, with skipper Steve Soley claiming the final touch. Matt Baker was caught out of the position at the corner, having tried to clear the initial effort by Pickford. Hereford pressed forward, and should have equalised minutes later, had it not been for an absolutely appalling miss by Andy Tretton. The visitors' defence unsuccessfully stepped up to play offside, leaving Tretton and Parry one-on-one with the keeper. From six yards however, the former Shrewsbury centre-back not only sent the ball wide, but also too high with the ball ending up in the Merton Meadow car park! The second half continued with Hereford putting plenty of pressure on Southport, but they could not force a way through. Welsby did not have very many saves to make, with many shots from long range going wide for Hereford. However, Chukki Eribenne, who looked the most effective attacker, was substituted midway through the second half to be replaced by a midfielder, Ben Smith, who was finally making his first appearance for the Bulls following his injury in pre-season. With your team desperately pushing forward for an equaliser though, you should not bring off an attacker when you have no other forwards on the bench. All the pressure came to nothing, and having threatened to break clear several times, Southport finally managed it in the 89th minute. Hereford had committed too many men forward on more than one occasion, and Southport broke away only to be foiled by the excellent Tony James on each occasion (who was man of the match despite what the match sponsors say!). Steve Soley received the ball, looking like he was offside, but strode forward and had his shot parried by Baker. He did well to get a hand to the shot, but he was powerless to prevent Peter Thomson tapping home the rebound from three yards. Thomson, like Soley, looked like he was offside. Hereford worked hard throughout the match, but just could not finish off any of their moves. It seemed that when the reached the edge of the penalty area, they didn't know what to do next! Southport were outstanding at the back, Barry Jones and Martin Clark in particular having excellent games. Judging by this performance however, it is hard to see Hereford getting anything out of next week's cup tie against Wigan, who returned to the top of the second division following their 2-0 victory away at Blackpool. But with the magic of the F.A. Cup, you never know. Hereford: Baker, Clarke, Rose, James, Wright, Tretton, Galloway, Williams, Parry, Guinan, Eribenne (sub Smith). Subs not used: Teesdale, Sawyers, Griffiths, Purdie.
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