HEREFORD continued their unbeaten away record with a ruthless 34-17 victory over basement side Longton.

The Wyesiders, encouraged by their previous week win at Worcester, took an early lead when second row forward Richard Preece drove over after four minutes.

Despite their league position Longton showed spirit and drew level with a converted try.

Hereford regained the lead from a catch and drive move, which saw the pack drive over the try-line for Gareth Jones to touch down.

Forward Luke Fisher clinched the Wyesiders' third try before the break to give them a 22-7 half-time lead.

Immediately after the restart, Hereford increased their lead and secured a bonus point try when Leon Parsons raced over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Longton scored a try of their own to reduce the score to 27-12 before winger Levi Hughes crossed the whitewash for the Wyesiders' fifth try.

For the final 15 minutes Hereford had to play with a man short when the scrums had to go uncontested, due to front row injuries.

During this period Longton completed their score with a try in the corner to take the closing score to 17 points to 34.

Head Coach Sean Lynn said: "It was an ugly win, we knew they would be dogged and naturally enough they were.

"The brand of rugby we are trying to play this year proved why we can be quite deadly and it’s something we were today.

"We scored some good tries, but it’s a tough place to come and we picked up a bonus point win, which I’m happy with. I thought Richard Jones was outstanding today, his physicality and everything about his game was on top form.

"A win is a win, we shall go back to the drawing board and work on getting our first home win next week.”