HEREFORD are finding the going tough in Premier 3 of the Gerrard West of England and South Wales League this season and are now one place off the bottom of the table following their 4-0 reverse at Newent.

Hereford held their own in the first period and although goalkeeper Jim Wallis produced some fine saves, skipper Colin Amos was guilty of missing some good chances at the other end.

Newent did, however, manage to defeat the brave Wallis on one occasion before the interval to lead by a single goal at the break.

The home side established a firm hold on the game at the start of the second period and added their seond goal midway through the half.

With Hereford now forced on to the offensive in a bid to salvage something from the game, Newent were able to exploit gaps and scored twice more.

After two fine wins the previous weekend, Leominster travelled to Gloucester City 2nd in North Division 1 confident of bringing the home side's 100% record to an end, but without success in an 8-3 defeat.

However, for the opening period, it appeared as if their hopes were justified with Josh Watkins taking advantage of some defensive slackness to open the scoring from open play.

After that, however, Gloucester began to show why they have made such a good start to the season, equalising from a short corner and then taking the lead with a shot which looped home from a defender's stick.

With the home side in the ascendant, two more goals followed before the interval, one from the last play of the half.

Watkins cut the deficit from a short corner but the home side scored four more with Rob Goodman's late consolation rounding off the 8-3 scoreline.

Herefordshire & Gloucestershire 1 leaders Cheltenham 3rd kept up their perfect start to the season with a 3-1 away win over Hereford 2nd.

Cheltenham took an early lead but Hereford's blend of youth and experience battled their way back into the game and claimed the equaliser five minutes before the break when some fluent passing from Ashley Moore and Pete Duggan paved the way for Steve Alderton to score.

Hereford conceded a sloppy goal to allow Cheltenham to regain the lead and although Pete Preece was in fine form in the Hereford goal, Cheltenham scored again to seal the points towards the end.

Hereford 3rd were disappointed to lose a point after Stroud 2nd, who had lost all of their previous three games, fought back from a 3-0 half-time deficit to claim a 3-3 draw.

Hereford had been forced on the defensive in the early stages with Mike Bates pulling off a goal-line clearance and goalkeeper Chris Bryn producing a good save from a penalty flick But the pacy Hereford youngsters then created a succession of chances and goals from Nick Ford, Stuart Goodarzi and Mark Rees appeared to have put them in firm control.

A penalty corner at the start of the second half saw Stroud reduce arrears and the home side scored again with a scrappy goal before another penalty corner brought the equaliser.

Ross were punished for a slow start and fell 3-0 behind at Cheltenham 4th with only a quarter of the game gone.

The visitors remained three goals adrift at the interval but the introduction of Ricardo Medici at half-time provided welcome inspiration with eight short corners won in quick succession.

Adrian Williams finally found the net from the ninth and Ross missed a number of other good chances before finally succumbing to a 3-1 defeat.