Saturday, December 14, 2002

THE Edgar Street goal-glut, which has brought nine goals in the last two Nationwide Conference games, goes on after a comprehensive hammering of Woking.

The remarkable turn-around in fortunes, after four goalless matches, has put some smiles back on faces in the stands and on the terraces.

This is in no small measure due to the return after injury of striker John Grant and midfielder Ben Smith.

Although Grant has yet to find the net this season, his strong and willing running has resulted in holes opening up in defences for players such as Smith, now three goals in two games after missing the first three months of the season, to exploit.

"We haven't been scoring many goals lately but it's not just the forwards who have been missing chances and goals come from all departments," said former Yeovil Town midfielder Smith.

"The way the side is set up gives me a lot of space to get forward and teams get disorientated because we break with such pace. When we're away from home I might have to restrict my runs a bit but when we're attacking most of the time I can get forward quite a bit."

Smith administered an impressive coup de grace with two goals in the last nine minutes, but the Bulls had been set on the road to victory with two memorable first-half strikes from dead-ball specialist Michael Rose.

The former Manchester United youngster opened the scoring in the 29th minute when his free-kick from the left flashed through a crowd of players to end up in the corner of the net.

Four minutes before the break, he took advantage of the Cards' hesitancy in assembling their defensive wall to blast another 25-yard free-kick into the same corner of the net.

Rose won't remember the second-half with such pleasure as he received a caution which earns him a ban for racking up five yellow cards this season.

His indiscretion hardly matched that of Woking substitute Anthony Allman, who came on at the interval but was on his way back to the bench less than three minutes later after an horrific challenge on Danny Williams earned him a red card.

Hereford were unable to profit from their one-man advantage until the 72nd minute when another substitute, Rob Purdie, produced a beautiful piece of skill to deliver a perfect cross to the far post where Steve Guinan headed home.

Purdie's excellent through ball set up Smith's first goal nine minutes from time and Smith rounded the scoring off with the fifth in the last minute.