Saturday, August 2, 2003

MARKSMAN Steve Guinan fired Hereford United to their fifth victory in seven pre-season matches with a coolly taken 70th-minute winner against Worcestershire rivals Kidderminster Harriers at Edgar Street on Saturday.

The former Nottingham Forest striker latched on to a blocked clearance and broke clear from the half-way line to unleash an unstoppable, low drive inside Stuart Brock's near post to seal a 2-1 win.

United deserved their victory against a Harriers side who displayed some neat touches and created several clear-cut openings, but were generally disappointing on a sweltering afternoon.

Hereford manager Graham Turner said: "We have had a hard three days, if you consider the match against Birmingham on Thursday.

"There were some nice performances today, particularly, in the first half and there were also some good moves.

"It has been a good pre-season programme for us and it has culminated in a good performance."

However, Harriers' manager Ian Britton commented: "Our performance wasn't very good - but that is one bad performance in seven matches and I am not going to go overboard about it. I thought that Hereford deserved to win."

Kidderminster started brightly and should have opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Bo Henriksen found himself in space inside the United area but his shot was blocked by the body of Matt Baker.

Hereford eventually got into their stride around the half-hour mark and Rob Purdie raced away from the visitors defence only to be foiled by Brock.

United opened the scoring in the 34th minute when Danny Williams popped up at the back post to head home a cross from Paul Parry.

But Kidderminster drew level within seven minutes of the restart after Graham Ward careered down the right and intelligently pulled the ball back for Sam Shilton who finished emphatically with a low drive from the edge of the area.

The visitors should have gone in front on 65 minutes when Shilton crossed for unmarked trialist John Williams, who mis-kicked with the goal at his mercy.

Hereford: Baker, Green, Rose, Pitman (King 63), Teesdale (Moon 76), James, (Tretton 76), D Williams (Carey-Bertram 46), Smith (Craven 63), Guinan, (Ennis 71), Purdie, Parry (Sawyers 63).

Harriers: Brock, Coleman (Smith 26, Ayres 46), Hinton, Willis, Shilton, (Parrish 66), Ward (Heath 80), Bennett, Flynn, D Williams, Lewis (J Williams 46), Henriksen.