Hereford United rounded off a miserable week when they went down 2-0 at Hayes in the GM Vauxhall Conference on Friday. With the last eight days having brought a return of just one point from three games, United won't need any more performances like this if they are to mount a realistic promotion challenge. At Church Road they were undone by the power and pace of highly-rated Jason Roberts, whose two first-half strikes moved his side up to fifth place.

The 19-year-old nephew of Cyrille Regis, himself a former Hayes player, is already rated in the £100,000 class, and his performance against the Bulls, in front of a number of salivating scouts from league clubs, will certainly have enhanced his value.

But Hereford contributed substantially to their own downfall with yet more sloppy defending. After 11 minutes, Chris MacKenzie came to the edge of his penalty area to gather a through ball but fumbled under pressure from Roberts, who fired the ball home from the edge of the area.

The United goalkeeper had a good case for claiming he was fouled in this instance, but has little excuse 20 minutes later. His poor clearance was returned to the penalty area and Roberts easily shook off the challenge of Richard Walker to score his second.

In between the goals MacKenzie had saved well from the lively Martin Randall, but at the other end United were wasting clear opportunities of their own. The best of these fell to Neil Grayson, who allowed home keeper Russell Meara to smother his attempt from point-blank range after Ian Rodgerson and Ian Foster had combined to set up the chance.

Grayson, who had a nightmare game after so many excellent performances, wasted two more good chances in the second half. After 59 minutes he scuffed a shot wide from six yards out after a good run by Foster, and then, eight minutes later, the ex-Northampton striker directed a header from close range straight at Meara after Chris Hargreaves had flicked on a Rob Warner corner. Walker had received a seventh-minute caution for a foul on Roberts, and he was joined in the referee's notebook by Rodgerson, Grayson and skipper Trevor Matthewson.

Hereford: MacKenzie, Rodgerson, Fishlock, Matthewson, Brough, Walker, Hargreaves, Warner, Grayson, Foster, Mahon. Subs not used: Agana, Downing, Pitman.

Attendance: 974