Full-time: Hereford United 1 Cheltenham Town 1 (From Hereford Times)

Full-time: Hereford United 1 Cheltenham Town 1

4:55pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in Reports By Richard Prime

HEREFORD survived a second-half onslaught from the table-topping Cheltenham to pick up a home point.

De;lroy Facey had given Hereford the lead in a first-half where they had much the better of the action, only for Kaid Mohamed to level three minutes into the second period.

Hereford boss Jamie Pitman was able to welcome back Benoit Dalibard after suspension.

The French defender took over the left-back berth from Rob Purdie who moved up into midfield in place of the injured Harry Pell.

Alongside Purdie in the midfield quintet, Tom Barkhuizen returned in place of Yoann Arquin.

Simon Clist returned after injury to take a place on the bench alongside new loan signing Lyle Taylor, the Bournemouth striker who is at Edgar Street for a month.

Cheltenham won an early free-kick when Barkhuizen brought down Jermaine McGlashan but the ball flashed through the goalmouth and out of play with no-one able to get a touch.

Adam Bartlett had to come to the edge of his area to boot clear from Darryl Duiffy.

But Hereford had a good chance when Joe Colbeck played Nicky Featherstone in only for Sido Jombati to dive in with an excellent saving tackle.

This led to a series of corners but Hereford were unable to create a clear-cut opening.

The Bulls, however, did take the lead on 11 minutes.

Dalibard’s deep cross picked out Facey in acres of space and the Bulls skipper timed his leap to head past Scott Brown.

Hereford kept up the pressure and only a goalline clearance by Luke Summerfield prevented a second Bulls goal from Featherstone.

With Hereford keeping up the pressure, Purdie sent Colbeck away to deliver a cross which flashed through the goalmouth just ahead of Barkhuizen.

After 23 minutes, though, Hereford suffered a blow when Dalibard appeared to pull a hamstring and had to leave the field, Sam Clucas came on at left-back in a like-for-like swap.

Hereford were disrupted for a while and conceded possession as well as a series of corners.

But the Bulls broke out and Barkhuizen showed his pace to speed into the area before delivering a cross which was hurriedly cleared.

Then a through ball from Colbeck was only marginally too strong for Barkhuizen to reach ahead of keeper Scott Brown.

Three minutes into the second period, Cheltenham were level.

Clucas allowed McGlashan too much space on the right and Mohamed headed into the corner of the net.

Cheltenham piled on the pressure with three successive corners before the ball was cleared.

Hereford replaced Facey with Taylor and the teenager was quickly in the action, forcing Brown into a low save with a powerful angled drive.

But Mohamed wasted a good opportunity to put the Robins in front when he miscued a drive from 12 yards and sent the ball flying wide.

Cheltenham were now dominating play and it took a goalline cleareance from Ben Purkiss to prevent a Mohamed header from finding the net.

Then a flying volley from Alan Bennett flew high over from a dangerous position.

But against the odds, Hereford almost snatched a goal when Barkhuizen beat the defence to a punt forward from Ryan Green, got the ball past Brown but also past an upright.

Hereford: 4-5-1: Bartlett; Purkiss, Green, Townsend, Dalibard (Clucas 24); Colobeck, Evans, Purdie, Featherstone (Clist 73), Barkhuizen; Facey (Taylor 60). Subs not used: Cornell, Arquin.

Cheltenham: 4-4-2: Brown; Jombati, Bennett, Lowe, Garbutt; McGlashan (Smikle 86), Summerfield, Pack, Mohamed; Duffy (Goulding 83), Spencer (Low 90). Subs not used: Hooman, Penn.

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire).

Attendance: 2,607 (including 718 from Cheltenham).

Goals: Facey, 11 min, 1-0; Mohamed, 49 min, 1-1.

Yellow card: Hereford – Colbeck , foul, 30 min; Clucas, foul, 67 min; Cheltenham – Jombati, dissent, 90 min.