A LATE Tom Starkey try and a strong defensive display helped Hereford to return to winning ways by edging a 20-17 victory at Whitchurch in a game which could have gone either way.

Head Coach, Sean Lynn said that it was a improved performance after last weekend's 21-19 defeat against Sutton Coldfield.

He said: “It was an impressive result away from home.

“We were not great last week, I asked the boys when coming away from home to be warriors and that’s something that they were.

"I’m proud of the boys 1 to 18, all put in a tremendous performance and a huge effort in defence. Now we must build on this and make sure at home next week we do the same thing.”

Whitchurch took an early lead after winning the ball inside the Hereford 22 their lively scrum-half ran through a number of tackles to score an unconverted try in the corner.

Within a minute Hereford reduced the deficit through a James Stubbs penalty.

The Wyesiders deserved their 39th minute lead when Sean Day cut back to score under the posts and Stubbs slotted the conversion to give Hereford a 10-5 interval lead.

The home forwards then set up a good drive and pushed over for an unconverted try to draw level at 10-10.

However, Hereford restored their lead when a smart throw to the front of the line was won by Matt Lawrence allowing Richard Preece and Ollie Hutcheson to drive over the line for Hutcheson to touch down for an unconverted try.

End-to-end play continued and Whitchurch chased down a speculative kick ahead to dot down for a try which was converted to give them a narrow two-point lead.

After a period of pressure Hereford kicked a penalty to the corner, won the lineout and moved the ball across field to Starkey who made a strong run to dive over for the final score.

The Hereford defence then had to resist some determined Whitchurch attacks for the last ten minutes before running out winners.