HEREFORD  13 - 10  SYSTON

Wyeside, 6 October 2004

Powergen Intermediate Cup Midlands Third Round

Last weeks' red card for Andy Johnson gained him a club ban, in anticipation of the North Midlands' Disciplinary committee. Gary Preece’s yellow card contributed to him being picked on the bench, whilst the yellow card for Wayne Davies was deemed by the selection committee to be harsh, on that occasion. Also unavailable were Mark Astley, Nathan Bishop and Gareth Griffiths.

Mayson was picked at fullback, and the back row consisted of a youthful under 21 line up of Ben Collier, Luke Clifford and Ali McColl. The back row were instrumental in defence and attack and along with 19 year old scrum half Billy Grisman, had outstanding games.

The team started off under pressure for the first 20 minutes when Syston failed to score on two occasions. Good defensive work from Collier and Mayson stemmed the tide, before Collier received the customary yellow card for a Hereford player. Ben Jenkins had a fine game in his first outing at Centre.

After the initial onslaught Hereford moved up a gear and the return of Collier “from the Bin” resulted in sustained pressure well into the Syston half. From a resulting penalty for offside, Will Bolt kicked Hereford into a 3 point lead. There followed Hereford’s best quarter when they were unlucky not to score on several occasions due to wrong decisions and giving away penalties. Just before half time Hereford won the ball from the scrum, unleashed their attacking backs and excellent inter-play ended with Ali McColl scoring in the corner with the help of his pack.

The second half saw Hereford dominate passages of play but again passes went astray and penalties were given away. Ancient prop Steve Bailes came on for Louis Fairbrother, who had done his job. Hereford forwards began to dominate with Captain Wilf Reece and Jamie Bullock, in the second row, doing their fair share of work. With about 15 minutes left another inter passing movement between forwards and backs allowed 17-year-old winger Adam Knight to give the final pass to Des White who romped in to take the score to 13-0. The game seemed won, at least to the Hereford players, but Syston had other ideas. There followed a couple of missed tackles and some unfavourable refereeing decisions allowing Syston to snatch back two undeserved tries. However Hereford stood firm for the last couple of minutes and go through as worthy winners.

Coach Mike Stubbs said “When I agreed with Chairman Guy Griffiths to come here, we agreed it would be a 5 year plan for the whole club and we both knew that there would be a rough couple of years before we could get the selection right by bringing in the younger players, whilst keeping a balance. Those that left the club when I arrived, made that policy more difficult on the field in the short term, but we are well on the way now. Indeed many senior players have said it was a blessing in disguise that we virtually had to start from scratch. At that time the Club had degenerated into a one team club but now we have three senior sides with an abundance of talent within the Mini and Junior sections. In addition, this season’s very successful under 17 team, as last years, know that they have a real family club to play for, and first team selection as their target. At Hereford we are not engaged in “buying players in, or trying underhand tactics to recruit players from other clubs. If a player wants to play here he is always welcome and he will always get a fair crack of the whip now. We are a city side, who have tasted success in the National Leagues and Cups and our aim is to compete again at the highest level.”