LEE Barnard's goal gave Southend United a half-time advantage in their League 1 clash with Hereford United at Roots Hall.
The opening exchanges were dominated by Southend with Hereford not helping their cause with some cavalier defending.
Ben Smith gifted a back pass to Dougie Freedman 10 yards out and was grateful for goalkeeper Darren Randolph coming to his rescue with a fine save.
More poor defending then handed the ball to Lee Barnard whose shot was blocked by Dean Beckwith at the expense of a further corner.
Barnard then flicked a header wide from an excellent cross by Simon Francis.
After this poor opening, Hereford finally got their game going to create a couple of chances.
Steve O’Leary drilled a shot wide from 25 yards and Bradley Hudson-Odoi struck a fierce drive across goal and wide.
The Ghana under-20 international then cut in again from the right to see another shot saved by the diving Steve Mildenhall.
Southend hit back with Randolph pulling off another fine save from James Walker’s drive before some more desperate defending gave Southend the opener.
Hereford had several opportunities to clear before Freedman crossed for Barnard to slide in from close range.
But Hereford should have hit back immediately when Hudson-Odoi squandered a great chance, sidefooting Steve Guinan’s cross wide from five yards.
The Bulls had to replace Williams, apparently suffering a recurrence of his ankle problem, with Matt Done before Mildenhall saved well from Toumani Diagouraga’s 25-yard drive On 41 minutes, a deflection gave Barnard an opening 10 yards out but Randolph came out quickly to block.
