JOHN Mills scored his 38th goal of the season in all competitions from the penalty spot as Hereford finished as Evo-Stik Southern Champions on 113 points scoring 111 goals.

Mills had only come on as a substitute in the 65th minute but after Dara O’Shea was judged to have been fouled inside the box the marksman stepped up and dinked the ball home four minutes later.

Hereford cheered on by approximately 600 visiting supporters piled on the pressure from the outset and Mike Symons saw his header fly over after O’Shea’s inch perfect cross.

Moment later the Bulls were ahead after Lance Smith saw his header rattle the bar before the rebound fell to O’Shea whose 33th minute low shot found the bottom corner.

The host’s best chance came early in the second half with Ben Baker’s cross cutting Hereford open but Ollie Snaith couldn’t connect to tap the ball home.

Mills who has been left out of the Hereford side after coming back from an injury almost made 3-0 late on but saw his free-kick tipped over the bar.

“It’s nice to finally get some minutes as I’ve wanted to play for a while so it’s nice to get back out there,” said Mills.

“To grab a game as soon as I got on and I look forward to Monday now.

“For any footballer you don’t really want to sit on the bench. There was nobody else going to have that penalty as I’ve been waiting for a goal for a while now.”

There was doubts whether the match would go ahead due to heavy rain causing sections of the pitch to become waterlogged yesterday (Friday).

However, Hereford manager Pete Beadle said his side were keen to see their league season finish.

“We were going to travel whatever and tried to get a message to them saying whatever happens make sure it’s on and we will sweep it off if we have to but they have done a great job to get the game on,” said Beadle.

“They have had a game Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on this pitch and it didn’t play that badly in the end.

“It is difficult because the boys have been so good since we won the league and there was always going to be a lull at some point and we saw a little bit of it today.

“It wasn’t vintage or fluent but they got the job done with another clean sheet and three points and you can’t ask for much more than that.

“John (Mills) has been a little frustrated lately with his game time but we need to manage him and his knee.

“We want him right and ready for next year, so we’ve tried to look after him so it was nice for him to get a goal and end of season for him.

“We thought the penalty was very soft but we’ll take it anyway. He has tucked it away nicely and reached 30 league goals which is a fantastic record.”