Tonight's pre-season fixture proved to be an interesting affair, which finished all square at Edgar Street this evening. The City side included million pound misfit Lee Trundle who demonstrated his full repertoire of sluggish movement, misplaced passes and inaccurate shooting. Bulls Supremo Graham Turner fielded a team arguably as strong as was available at this stage of the build-up but including a right wing trialist announced as David Carter who later admitted to being Ashley-Paul Robinson formally of Crystal Palace.
Early in the game, Scott Murray tested the increasingly impressive Samson in the United goal but it was Simon Johnson who had the first effective effort on goal. Receiving a deft flick-on from Guinan, he turned his marker and fired a rising shot just inches over Basso's crossbar. At the other end, Trundle tried to dink a ball to the far post but only succeeded in even missing the corner flag before spooning another opportunity over the bar from just eight yards. Samson brought off a fine save from Murray before a shot from Steve Brooker seriously threatened the shoe hanging in the roof of the Meadowend. Meanwhile, City trialist and former Leicester fullback Maybury was extremely fortunate not to see his sliced clearance end up in the Bristol net. Carter (Robinson) was showing some useful touches although his final ball left a little to be desired at times.
Whilst the first half produced some tidy watchable football, it was the second period that was to produce the goals. Simon Johnson made a break from midfield before releasing Done who's deep cross was headed just wide by Steve Guinan. But shortly after, The Bulls took the lead through Johnson. Diagouraga showed strength and skill to hold off the attention of Ribero before slipping a delightful through ball to Simon Johnson who smashed home passed the helpless Basso from just inside the box. Taylor and Threlfall then combined with the latter firing just wide. The Bristol equaliser came by way of a piece of pure theatre from Trundle. He chased a ball into the box and in so doing brushed shoulders with Dean Beckwith. The slight upper body contact caused both of Trundle's feet to fly into the air as he hit the ground like a shot elephant. Trundle converted the resultant penalty with a rare shot on target.
On the hour mark several changes were made with Smith replacing Threlfall and Jack MacLeod coming on for Carter (Robinson) while shortly afterwards, Guinan made way for Hudson-Odoi and Easton for Done.
Just short of half an hour into the second period, The Bulls again went ahead. Ben Smith's through ball was cleared for a corner, which was curled to the near post by Macleod. Young Irishman Garry Breen rose majestically to head his first goal in a United shirt. With ten minutes remaining, Darren Randolph replaced Samson but his first touch was to pick the ball out of the net when Scott Murray gave him no chance with a crisp volley from ten yards out for the final score of the game which was watched by just 830 including 155 from south of the Severn.
With a couple of pre-season games still to be played, there is expected to be a number of, as yet, unseen additions to the squad over the next week or so as Turner seeks to add more goal threat to his forces. No doubt the Gaffer is a busy man at the moment and speculation this evening suggests that one or two deals may already have been struck with loan players. The upcoming games against Southampton next Tuesday and West Baggage Albion on the Friday could well see a few surprises.
Hereford United: Samson, Rose, Threlfall, Breen, Beckwith, Done, Carter, Diagouraga, Taylor, Guinan, Johnson.
Subs: Jones, Hudson-Odoi, MacLeod, Easton, Moses, Smith, Randolph.
Bristol City: Basso, Maybury, Walker, Wilson, Ribero, Wilson, Murray, Betsy, Brooker, Trundle, Plummer.
Subs: Kington, Stambolziev, Jackson, Wilkinson, Henderson.
Text at top (next game etc)
Next Game: Boston At Edgar Street On Saturday April 20th Kick-Off 3.00pm