Evesham United 0 Hereford United 3

TWO first-half goals by Adam Stansfield and a wonder strike by Rob Purdie were a fair reflection of Hereford's superiority over their Dr Martens League Western Division opponents in a friendly on Tuesday, writes Richard Prime.

Full-backs Nick Williams (Watford) and Mark Robinson (Hartlepool), as well as midfielder Sean Doxey (Port Vale) and teenager Andy Williams, were named in Graham Turner's line-up.

Graham Hyde, once of Sheffield Wednesday, whose shrewd prompting from midfield was a feature of the first period, also started for the first time after spending 12 days on jury service.

Evesham looked dangerous in the early stages and goalkeeper Ben Scott twice had to come to the Bulls' rescue.

The 20-year-old was quickly out of his goal to reach the ball just before Lee Ross from a poor Tom Smith back-pass and then raced from his area to head clear after a through-ball had beaten the off-side trap.

But after Stansfield had profited from a mix-up in the Evesham defence to open the scoring after 10 minutes, Hereford rarely looked back.

Andy Williams and Stansfield worked an excellent opening for David Brown which the former Hull man made a mess off and Stansfield saw a header from Simon Travis' cross tipped on to the bar by Tim Clarke as Hereford moved up a gear.

And their first-half dominance was reflected more truly when Brown played Stansfield in to score a second four minutes before the break.

With the Hereford defence still daydreaming at the start of the second period, Mark Atkinson missed a chance to pull a goal back for the home side in the 48th minute.

After that it was virtually all Hereford but the only goal came on 62 minutes when Purdie raced forward and played a one-two with Doxey, volleying the knee-high return into the net with a shot which Clarke hardly saw.

Hereford: Scott (Ding 78 min), N Williams (Travis 26 min), Robinson (Talbot 46 min), March, James (Mkandawire 53 min), Smith (Tretton 59 min), Hyde (Stanley 46 min), A Williams, Stansfield (Purdie 59 min), Brown (Pitman 74 min), Doxey (D Williams 67 min).