Hereford United 1 Scunthorpe United 2 TWO goals in five second-half minutes handed the points to Scunthorpe and kept the Bulls on the foot of the League 1 table.

Hereford welcomed back skipper Karl Broadhurst for his first match of the season after recovering from a dislocated shoulder.

Broadhurst took the place of Richard Rose while there was a debut for Nick Chadwick who led the attack in place of Steve Guinan in a revised 4-4-2 formation.

Scunthorpe made a promising start and Cliff Byrne headed just over from an early corner.

Hereford’s defence were certainly being kept on their toes in the early stages and full-back Richard Jackson cleared another effort off the line.

One Scunthorpe player that Hereford knew all about was former Bulls loanee Gary Hooper but United presented the striker with a great chance to open the scoring.

On 15 minutes, Hooper raced in to intercept when Dean Beckwith’s back pass fell short but goalkeeper Darren Randolph was quickly off his line to block.

Hereford were gradually beginning to put some moves together and took the lead after 22 minutes.

Matt Done raced into the penalty area in pursuit of a long pass and was crudely brought down by Izzy Iriekpen’s high challenge.

Chadwick did not waste his chance of a debut goal by converting from the spot.

Hereford largely controlled Scunthorpe’s attempts to respond in the next phase although Martyn Woolford went close with a fierce drive from the edge of the area.

Hooper again demonstrated his threat in first-half injury-time when he got to the bye-line and dragged the ball across goal without anyone able to get a touch.

Hereford made a lively start to the second period with Done often prominent in attack.

But Scunthorpe’s pace on the counter-attack proved decisive with two quickfire goals both resulting from Hereford corners.

On 53 minutes Sam Togwell seized on a flick from Hayes and flashed a drive into the corner of the net.

And then, five minutes later, Hooper raced away following another Hayes flick and beat Randolph with a well-placed shot.

Ben Smith cam close to levelling when he found some space in the area to send a header inches over.

Hooper almost scored again on 69 minutes after an excellent run which took him past three defenders before sending a shot narrowly wide.

But Hereford’s luck was certainly out 10 minutes later when a speculative shot from substitute Simon Johnson which hit the inside of a post and rebounded into the arms of surprised keeper Joe Murphy.

Johnson’s arrival certainly pepped up the Hereford attack and he was the instigator of the next move which ended with Toumani Diagouraga heading just over.

But The Iron remained a danger and Randolph did well to touch a Gary Thompson shot into the side-netting.

Hereford: Randolph; Jackson, Broadhurst, Beckwith, Taylor; Hudson-Odoi, O’Leary (Johnson, 75 min), Smith, Diagouraga, Done; Chandwick. Subs not used: Samson, Easton, Rose, MacLeod.

Scunthorpe: Murphy; Byrne, Iriekpen, Pearce, Williams; Sparrow, McCann (Morris, 81 min), Togwell, Woolford; Hooper, Hayes (Thompson, 65 min). Subs not used: Lillis, Mirfin, Hurst.

Referee: G Ward (Surrey) Attendance: 3,004 (296 from Scunthorpe).

Goals: Chadwick pen, 23 min, 1-0; Togwell, 53 min, 1-1; Hooper, 58 min, 1-2; Yellow cards: Scunthorpe – Iriekpen, foul, 24 min; McCann, dissent, 29 min.