Leeds United 1 Hereford United 0.

AN excellent goalkeeping display from Darren Randolph was unable to prevent Hereford from slipping to another single-goal away defeat at Elland Road.

The Bulls have now lost all five of their away games this season, but four of them by the odd goal.

Randolph performed wonders between the posts, bringing off a string of excellent saves from the lively home attack before being beaten 19 minutes from time.

Even then, there was an element of fortune as the keeper had pulled off an excellent stop from Luciano Becchio but was powerless to prevent Andy Robinson from heading home the rebound.

“Darren is a very good goalkeeper, as is Craig Samson – we have two very good goalkeepers,” said Richard Rose, who was recalled to play in a revamped defence which also included on-loan signing Bruno N’Gotty.

“Darren is like that every day in training and some of the saves he made today were really top-class saves. He was superb today.”

Hereford’s defence was given plenty of work to do in a busy first half.

Richard Jackson produced an excellent interception when Jermaine Beckford threatened to break clear, but it was largely Randolph who was at centre stage.

The keeper left his line to block from the dangerous Beckford, who has already scored 11 times this season, and performed a similar feat to deny Becchio.

He was then quickly out of his area to head clear when Beckford, for once, got clear of the Hereford defence.

Hereford, on the other hand, were rarely able to threaten at the other end, although Stephen O’Leary sent a couple of long-range efforts wide.

It was a similar tale in the early moments of the second period, although Beckford should really have hit the target instead of blasting tamely wide when he was left alone 12 yards out.

The striker gave Randolph another chance to show his skills on the hour-mark, however, with another excellent block.

Randolph produced another fine save from Becchio just before the goal and then, with Hereford starting to press forward in search of an equaliser, foiled Beckford again with the striker clean through.

Late on, with three substitutes thrown into the fray, Hereford came close to snatching a leveller.

Matt Done’s shot was blocked for a corner and then Moses Ashikodi should really have done better than shoot wide of the target when his pace left him with only keeper David Lucas to beat. It left the Bulls with an unhappy outcome to their 100th league game since returning to football’s elite.

“We have given 100% out there, we just need to pass the ball around a lot better than we did,” said Rose.

“The performance today had its plus points. For 70 minutes of the game we looked like a good outfit but then there was just a little blip in the middle that we need to get over.

“We need to concentrate for the whole 90 minutes of the game and to keep a clean sheet.”

Rose also enjoyed the experience of playing in front of the vast crowd of 25,756, the third biggest crowd after Cardiff – 35,549 in 1975/6 – and Chelsea – 27,720 in 1976/7 – ever to watch the Bulls in League action.

“It’s very rare for us to play in front of a big crowd like that and it can work either way for the home side,” said the former Gillingham defender.

“The crowd were just starting to turn on them but then they got the goal and it started to go the other way for us. But it was nice to play in front of a crowd like that, very loud!

“We could hear the Hereford fans up in the corner. Every time we go away we take a good crowd, they always make a racket and we can always hear them.”

Hereford: Randolph; Jackson, Broadhurst, N’Gotty, Rose; Hudson-Odoi (Smith, 81 min), O’Leary, Johnson (Taylor, 81 min), Diagouraga, Done; Chadwick (Ashikodi, 67 min). Subs not used: Samson, Beckwith.

Leeds: Lucas, Douglas, Marquis, Richardson, Beckford, Robinson (Snodgrass, 81 min), Telfer, Howson, White (Hughes, 80 min). Subs not used: Ankergren, Prutton, Kilkenny.

Referee: G Laws (Tyne and Wear).

Attendance: 25,676 (781 from Hereford).

Yellow cards: Hereford – O’Leary, 14 min, foul; Broadhurst, 70 min, foul.

Goal: Robinson, 71 min, 1-0.