A LUKE Firkin brace helped Hereford FC’s under-18s to come from behind twice to lift the Herefordshire FA Giantkillers Cup last night.

The young Bulls fell a goal behind inside five minutes at Edgar Street, but managed to equalise before half time as Luke Firkin found the bottom corner of the net.

Improvements were needed at half time despite the score being level, and Hereford matched Stourport in the second half to force the game into extra time.

Two quick goals saw Connor Davies-Austin cancel out a strike two minutes earlier from Stourport, as Luke Firkin went on to net his second of the game ten minutes from time.

After a slow start to the game for Hereford, Head Coach Dan Chance changed the shape at half time and it paid off.

He said: “We changed the shape, played a 3-5-2 and the two lads up front started causing them more and more problems. We were pretty confident we were going to get back into the game at some point.

“We felt we were the better side and the quality would come through, thankfully it did. The massive thing for us was when we went behind, we got that corner two minutes later and I said ‘if this goes in, this is massive’. Their dugout was rightly celebrating and they were going wild that they’d just gone 2-1 up.

“We got the second early on and it meant we looked like going to get the third. To be honest we were confident we would get the third and go on to win the game.”

Hereford also made it to the final of the under-18s cup last season, but suffered heartbreak in the final at Edgar Street as Pegasus Juniors broke their stranglehold on the cup.