Hereford United 2 Birmingham City Xl 2

SIMON Johnson’s excellent equaliser five minutes from time saved Hereford United from defeat in their pre-season friendly against a young Birmingham side.

Neither side was able to make much impact in the early stages although Hereford’s build-up play looked promising.

The first real shot did not arrive until the 25th minute when Ashley Sammons let fly from 25 yards for the visitors.

But Darren Randolph in the Hereford goal was not troubled as the ball flew a long way wide.

Two minutes later, Clint Easton’s pass sent Ben Smith surging into the are but his cross was just ahead of the stretching Bradley Hudson-Odoi.

Hereford’s first corner arrived a minute later but Luke Webb’s cross was easily cleared.

The opening goal arrived shortly afterwards, however and was a replay of the goal that the Bulls conceded at Kidderminster.

Jacob Rowe’s back-pass reached Blues keeper Arthur Krysiak who tried to dribble around Steve Guinan but the striker nicked the ball off him and slipped it into the back of the net.

Hereford made a lively start to the second period with Easton and Robbie Threlfall setting up a shooting chance for Hudson-Odoi whose effort was comfortably saved.

Then Toumani Diagouraga should have done better than firing into the side-netting after racing on to a good pass from Easton.

But Hereford were handed a setback in the 53rd minute when Charlie Kodalak’s pass played in Jarred Strevens who neatly rounded triallist Phil Doughty before firing past Randolph.

Four minutes later, matters deteriorated still further when Strevens’ pass opened up the Hereford defence for Sammons to shoot home.

Hereford then resumed their attacking dominance and Krysiak pulled off a fine save to foil a neat volley from Guinan.

Hereford’s equaliser arrived five minutes from time when Johnson worked some space for himself on the edge of the area and curled a superb shot into the top corner.

Hereford: Randolph; Rose, Doughty (Breen, 62 min), Beckwith, Threlfall (Taylor, 58 min); Webb (McLeod, 58 min), Smith, Diagouraga (Jones, 76 min), Easton (Done, 67 min); Guinan, Hudson-Odoi (Johnson, 67 min).

Birmingham: Krysiak, McKeer (Rutter, 58 min), Timmins, Sammons (O’Brien, 58 min), Rowe, Queudrue, Moses-Garvey (James McPike, 67 min), Mitchell McPike, Strevens (Gradwell, 67 min), Kodalak, Evans.

Referee: Steve Bratt (West Midlands).

Attendance: 553 (35 from Birmingham).