Southern League South West Division

Shortwood United 0

Hereford 3

By Jim Cunneen

PHOENIX club Hereford rubber-stamped their title favourites tag with a resounding victory over Shortwood.

However, Alex Sykes’ side will look back on two excellent chances to level when they were only a goal down.

Pete Beadle’s side produced slick and fast football.

Wood’s defence had to be on their mettle and they were until the 18th minute when Ed Weeks made a rare mistake and Pablo Haysham squared the ball to John Mills who had the simplest of finishes at the far post.

Oates had a shot well saved by Rhys Lovett and it was 32 minutes before Liam Meredith saw a header drop just wide. Wood finally started to make some headway and Jake Lee put Will Morford through, but Bulls’ keeper Martin Horsell came out to block his shot.

Shortwood captain Nick Hancock almost put Steve Davies in just before the break, while Hereford’s Heysham saw a shot go wide just before half-time.

Hereford started the second half on top and had already created two chances before they doubled the score after 54 minutes. Wood conceded a free-kick and Plummer was played in to give Heysham another simple tap in.

Sykes rang the changes, but Hereford continued to dominate and Lovett made a fine save to keep out a Mills strike.

With four minutes to go Heysham threaded the ball through to Tumelty who ran on and fired low past the advancing Lovett.

Shortwood nearly grabbed a consolation strike, but Meredith saw his shot acrobatically cleared off the line.

At the death, Lovett turned away a stinger from former Arsenal midfielder Jack Edge.

SHORTWOOD: Lovett, Marks, Humphreys N (Bennett 63), Lewis, Weeks, Hancock (Price 72), Davies (Haddock 75), Withington, Lee, Morford, Meredith.

Attendance: 591.