HEREFORD fell to their first defeat in three months which has put a serious dent in their Midlands 1 West promotion hopes.

An abject display by the Wyesiders for the first hour against Stratford-upon-Avon ultimately proved costly and Hereford lost 27-10.

Stratford opened up an early 10 point lead with a penalty goal and a converted try.

The Hereford forwards established control in the set scrums, but too much possession was kicked away, allowing Stratford to run the ball back into Hereford territory.

But the away side did get on the scoresheet when Tom Ewins made a good break and passed to Perry Pudge, who set up Sean Day for a well-taken try.

As the interval approached, Hereford won a good scrum on the halfway line, but handling errors in their backs gave Stratford a scrum.

The Hereford forwards won it, but a minor disagreement led to Day being sinbinned for 10 minutes.

The resulting penalty led to Stratford scoring their second try, with the conversion putting them 17-5 ahead.

The home side increased their lead after the break with a well-taken penalty goal, before they added another try, which was converted.

This sprung Hereford into action and put a lot of pressure on the Stratford defence.

With 15 minutes to go, Fran Jennings broke from a scrum, Dean Powell moved the ball to Ewins, whose pass to Pudge went to ground.

Hereford opted to scrum a penalty award inside the Stratford 22, Gareth Jones drove off the back of the scrum and fed Day for the winger to dive over for the second Hereford try.

The conversion was missed, but Hereford's attacking play was too little too late, and they went home pointless.