Friday, December 20, 2002

STEVE GUINAN grabbed the Hereford United glory at the Deva Stadium last night as they beat high-flying Chester City 1-0.

The Hereford striker smashed home an 87th minute winner from 25 yards to earn his team fifth spot in the Nationwide Conference and inflict only Chester's third league defeat of the season.

Guinan received praise from Hereford boss and ex-Chester player, Graham Turner, who was delighted with the result.

Turner said: "Steve Guinan is not a prolific goalscorer -- he works very hard for the side -- but suddenly goals are going in for him.

"He scored a hat-trick a couple of weeks ago and he got another one last week, and now he's scored another very important goal, and nobody deserves it more than him because of the amount of work that he's done.

"His second chance a minute later was probably easier than his first, but we won't be greedy, we'll settle for a 1-0 win.

"A really pleasing aspect is that we've now kept three cleansheets. Both sides worked hard to defend and reduced the opposition to very few chances, and we had the bit of luck to get the winner.

"This was a great victory for us and it was a fair old scalp to take, but now we've got to make sure we pick up points from our next three matches."

Hereford opened brightly and central defender, Andy Tretton, was desperately unlucky to see his touch from a ninth minute corner cleared off the Chester line by Jon Brady.

John Grant was offered a fine scoring chance after 27 minutes, but he unleashed a tame 18-yard effort.

United keeper, Matt Baker, made a great save to deny Daryl Clare after 47 minutes, and Hereford were fortunate to see a close range Michael Brown shot rebound off a post in the 77th minute.

But Guinan slammed home the decisive strike from a squared Paul Parry pass three minutes from time to clinch a well-earned win.

Guinan could have doubled his tally a minute later when he found himself in a one-on-one situation with Brown, but his 18-yard effort was superbly saved by the City keeper.

Hereford boss, Turner, added: "My players are showing a lot of enthusiasm and we're now starting to pick up points."

United: Baker 7, Clarke 7, Rose 7, H Tretton 9, James 8, Pitman 7, Smith 7 (Purdie 7), Grant 8, Parry 8 (Wright), Williams 7, Guinan 8. Attendance: 2,507.