HEREFORD RFC player Richard Preece hopes the Wyesiders can now kick on and even be Midlands 1 West promotion contenders following a stunning 50-26 win against Bournville.

Bob Stewart's team are ninth in the division, 18 points adrift from the top two positions.

But Hereford have games in hand on all of the sides above them and will be targetting another victory against Stoke-on-Trent this Saturday.

"Bonus points have cost us, we've not lost too many, but we haven't put teams away," said Preece, who scored two of the tries.

"We need to get back on the winning road and finish the season strong.

"I think, if we can pick up some early wins and some bonus points, we might be there at the end of the season.

"The problem we have now is that we've got to win our rearranged games and hope other teams lose, which is not the best position to be in, but if we win all our games until the end of the season, we might be there."

After beating Burton 22-17 on November 7, Hereford had failed to score more than 20 points prior to last Saturday.

But, that all changed with an exhilarating first half that saw the Wyesiders go 33-0 up to effectively win the game.

"We've had a couple of poor results recently and there was a lot of honesty after the game at Whitchurch," said Stewart.

"But we had a fantastic session here last Tuesday, which got the boys up and the result showed in the first half."

Stoke decided not to play the original game against Hereford in December after deeming the pitch unplayable, something which disappointed Stewart.

"They bottled it to be perfectly honest because the word is they didn't have a particularly strong side," said Stewart.

"But they will be well up for it and it will be a tough match, but if we play to our potential, we can beat anybody.

"We've proved that by beating all of the top of the teams, but losing to the bottom two teams.

"We've got a great club down here and fantastic support, we want to put a show on for them.

"We are very strict on cutting out the mistakes and the sloppiness.

"If we cut that out and the guys starting to believe how good they can be, we can beat anybody."

After missing a penalty from Dean Powell on six minutes, Hereford went ahead thanks to a Luke Yarranton try.

And it was soon 10-0 when Perry Pudge set up Tom Ewins to go over.

Powell was this time successful with the boot and Hereford were 12-0 ahead.
It got better for the Wyesiders when Pudge found space to score a simple try, and added the extras.

It was 24-0 when Leon Parsons charged down the right to score, with Powell again converting.

And, by the half-hour mark, Hereford had rattled in five tries. This time, Nat Thomas went over, which Powell converted.

Bournville finally got on the scoresheet when James Whybrow scored a try, which he converted.

Bournville added another try through Stefan Cooksmammy, converted by Whybrow, before Fran Jennings and a Bournville player were yellow carded.

But Preece then got on the end of a Calum Duncan pass to make it 38-14 before Thomas made a great run down the left-hand side to touch down.
Mark Philo was then sent booked for Hereford and Bournville reduced the deficit to 17 points thanks to two trIes, the latter of which was converted.

But Hereford had the final say thanks to a Preece pushover try, which Powell converted. And it could have been more had Lewis Jordan's try not been disallowed for a forward pass.