Hereford 15 pts Scunthorpe 29

FORMER Rugby League player Mickey Colt ran the show for Scunthorpe as Hereford crashed to their second consecutive defeat in Midlands 1.

The more organised visitors' supremacy told in the second half after the hosts, in search of their first league win of the campaign, had done well to recover from an early 10-point deficit.

Jeremy Wheadon missed a penalty in the first minute for Hereford and centre Colt opened the scoring six minutes later when he cut through the home defence.

John Astbury successfully completed the conversion and when Colt scythed past the Hereford threequarter line mom-ents afterwards, only a last-gasp interception from winger Danny Gomberra stopped the Lincolnshire side from stretching their advantage.

Winger Astbury added a 40-yard penalty to extend the Scunthorpe lead after a quarter of an hour but centre Jeremy Grisman kick-started the Wye-siders' mini-revival following a good move from their backs.

Swiftly recycled ball culminated in a Hereford try for Grisman after he fed Gomberra, looped round to collect the return pass and went over near the far corner.

Finbar Heavens bagged a fine conversion from out wide and then brought the hosts level with an equally accurate 40-yard penalty in the 23rd minute.

Colt nearly provided the visitors with an immediate reply when a quick throw-in from Hereford backfired but Gomberra dashed back to touch down the Scunthorpe centre's dangerous grubber kick.

Visiting lock Tim Dunk was sin-binned nine minutes before the break but the Wyesiders failed to make their one-man advantage count and the scores remained even at half-time.

In comparison, the second period was a one-sided affair and by the time that Heavens intercepted deep in his own territory and sprinted 70-yards to touch down, the writing was realistically already on the wall for Hereford.

Colt popped up just five minutes after the break when, not for the first time, he ran straight through a powerless home defence, then drew full-back Cieron Griffiths' tackle perfectly and put in Astbury to score under the posts.

Astbury also converted and within three minutes the visitors were 22-10 ahead when Dunk went over following a close-range drive from the Scunthorpe pack.

Heavens gave Hereford a chink of light with his breakaway score, but summed up the home performance with a sloppy missed conversion from in front of the posts.

And, with 15 minutes remaining, the visitors killed off any chances of a late recovery from the Wyesiders when flanker Rick Proctor crossed the line for a try, which was converted by Astbury.

lThe fuel crisis meant that some of Hereford's Junior Section open day events were cancelled but nearly 40 new players registered with the club on Sunday.

The youth fixture with Cinderford went ahead and the Under-15 teamstarted with a 45-7 win over Cinderford with tries from Chris Leach (5), George West and James Westlake and five conversions from Ollie Kamister. The Under-13s won 53-0 against the Forest of Dean visitors.

Flanker Andrew Sable scored a try as Hereford Colts battled their way to a 5-5 draw at Burtonwood the previous afternoon.