Bulls go down to third successive defeat

10:57am Thursday 21st August 2008

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Hereford United 1 Yeovil Town 2 YOUNG striker Bradley Hudson-Odoi was left disappointed despite scoring his first League goal for Hereford United at Edgar Street on Saturday.

The Ghana under-20 international pounced after 81 minutes but his goal turned out to be little more than a consolation after two goals in three first-half minutes gave the Somerset visitors their first League victory of the season.

“I have mixed emotions,” he said. “I am happy to get my first goal under my belt but I am disappointed with the way the result went.

“The win is coming although we have had two defeats. We are playing well during the games and we just have to keep on working.

“I think we have adjusted well to the League and if we keep on working the way we are then the boys will be OK.

“It has been a tough first week but that’s football and if we keep on working hard then I am sure we will get the rewards.

Bulls skipper Ben Smith also maintained a realistic outlook.

Smith had a hand in two of the afternoon’s goals, deflecting a Danny Schofield shot past debutant goalkeeper Craig Samson for the first Yeovil goal but then seeing his shot spilled by Town stopper Asmir Begovic for Hudson-Odoi to pick up the pieces.

“We know that at the standard we are playing at now we cannot afford to give teams a two-goal head-start,” he said.

“In the second half, we had a go, got a goal back and had a few other opportunities but you just cannot afford to give teams of that calibre a two-goal lead.

“When you let in a goal you want to hit back as quickly as you can and the second one knocked the stuffing out of us a bit.

“But we re-grouped, no-one’s head dropped but we can’t afford to give leads away.”

Smith’s first contribution to the goal action came on 19 minutes when Schofield let fly from the edge of the area with a shot which hit the Bulls midfielder and squeezed in off a post.

Three minutes later and Hereford were left with a huge task.

Simon Johnson’s pass was intercepted in midfield and Aidan Downes left Robbie Threlfall yards behind as he chased the ball to the bye-line.

Many people on the ground expected the ball to go out of play but Downes showed commendable perseverance not only to reach the ball but also to deliver a low cross which was hammered in at the near post by Paul Warne.

Hereford tried hard in midfield but simply failed to find the decisive breakthrough until nine minutes from time.

Smith crashed in a shot from 20 yards which Begovic failed to hold and Hudson-Odoi nipped in to roll the ball home.

“The keeper dropped the ball and I just put it into the back of the net,” said the young striker.

The goal did bring some life to the Bulls and they almost snatched a point deep into injury time.

Jack MacLeod, on his league debut, sent in a deep cross from the right and Steve Guinan rose highest at the far post to win a header which thudded against a post and went behind.

The last 10 minutes should help boost confidence a little but Hereford know they must discover more penetration if they are to be successful.

“We have lost a lot of our forwards but it is not just down to the forwards to give us a cutting edge, it is down to the midfield as well and we need to get that first result to give us the confidence we need to go on,” said Smith.

“There is obviously a step up in this division and if you make mistakes you will get punished more frequently than you might in League 2 but I think we can take confidence from the fact that, although we haven’t played well, we have not been outclassed by anyone.

“We know that we can get a lot better.”

Hereford: Samson; Rose, Beckwith, Oji, Threlfall; Johnson (MacLeod, 65 min), Smith, Diagouraga, Easton (Done, 79 min); Guinan, Ashikodi (Hudson-Odoi, 65 min). Subs not used: Randolph, Taylor.

Yeovil: Begovic, Skiverton, Forbes, Way (Alcock, 32 min), Tomlin (Owusu, 66 min), Schofield, Warne (McCollin, 88 min), Downes, Murtagh, Peltier, Smith. Subs not used: Wagenaar, Jones.

Referee: Darren Deadman (Cambridgeshire).

Attendance: 3,476 (320 from Yeovil).

Goals: Schofield, 19 mins, 0-1; Warne, 22 mins, 0-2; Hudson-Odoi, 81 min.

Yellow cards: Yeovil – Begovic, time-wasting, 84 min; Alcock, time-wasting, 84 min.