Forest Greem Rovers 0 Hereford United 1

JOY and gloom, those two regular bedfellows for football supporters, were again in evidence at the New Lawn on Tuesday night.

Rod McDonald’s spectacular winning goal on 56 minutes lifted the Bulls above their hosts and up to sixth place in the Blue Square Bet Premier table.

But news filtering through of a late winner for Grimsby at Dartford crushed the already-unlikely dream of a late run to the play-offs.

“It was a fantastic win,” said Hereford boss Martin Foyle after seeing his team register their third straight victory.

“To come to Forest Green, who have spent huge amounts of money to try to get to the dreamland of the Football League, and win was an excellent performance.”

Hereford made a lively start and almost took an early lead when Chris Sharp played in Ryan Bowman whose shot thudded against the bar before being cleared.

But then it was the home side who controlled possession for a spell without really being able to test James Bittner who, along with skipper Luke Graham, had excellent nights on their returns to their former club.

The goal came after 56 minutes. A long throw from the accomplished Chris Bush was put behind for a corner and Sam Clucas’ corner was volleyed home at the far post by McDonald.

“The corner was good and it was a good finish at the back stick,” said Foyle. “He had another one shortly afterwards and I thought that was over the line, too, but we can’t be too greedy.”

Hereford’s claims that the ball had crossed the line when McDonald headed another Clucas corner goalwards and Al Bangura intercepted looked to have some validity but were waved away by Graham Horwood.

Hereford had to repel a good deal of pressure from the home side but could well have extended their lead in stoppage time when Sharp raced on to a Bowman pass but blazed wide.

The miss did little to detract from the effort and energy of United’s front-men, however. “I’ve not seen such work-rate as we had from our front two for a very long time,”

admitted Foyle.

United will now seek to h o l d on to sixth place by beating Gateshead at Edgar Street before hosting Mansfield in, potentially, one of the season’s key games next Tuesday.

The Stags top the table from Kidderminster by two points after beating Macclesfield on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Mansfield visit Braintree and second-placed Kidderminster visit Wrexham.

Wins for both of the top two would mean that Mansfield would bring a huge following to Edgar Street in the hope of seeing their team clinch the title.