Hereford United 2 Swansea City 0

GOALS from James McQuilkin and Sean Canham gave Hereford a comfortable warm-up victory tonight in front of more than 1,500 fans at Edgar Street.

Mathieu Manset, Stuart Fleetwood and Jamaican O’Neil Thompson caught the eye for United who looked lively in the first half.

Manset played a major part in United’s opening goal in the 21st minute after delivering a diagonal ball to McQuilkin.

McQuilkin’s arrowed drive from the right-hand edge of the box took a deflection off Alan Tate and beat Dorus De Vries at his near post.

Canham doubled United’s advantage seven minutes after the interval when he ran on to Fleetwod’s flick and coolly lobbed the ball over substitute stopper Dai Cornell.

United manager Simon Davey will be pleased that his side kept a clean sheet against Swansea, who narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs last term.

Davey has stressed his desire for United to play attacking football and he chose to start with a three-man strike-force of Manset, Fleetwood and Canham.

Trialist Sam Gwynne, who shone for United against Ledbury Town on Saturday, was missing through injury.

Swansea passed the ball sweetly in the early stages but United created the first chance when Manset shot into the side netting after cutting in from the left.

Swansea’s most impressive player Nathan Dyer had the ball in the net after nine minutes but his effort was ruled out for offside.

A half-volley from Manset flashed wide and then De Vries kept out a low shot from Fleetwood before Hereford won three corners in quick succession.

United started to build pressure and it was no real surprise when they took the lead through McQuilkin after excellent work by the lively Manset.

More trickery from Manset won United a free kick around 25 yards from Swansea’s goal. However, Thompson shot wide from the set-piece.

Swansea almost drew level in the 35th minute after a ball into the box was missed by Richard Rose and Janos Kovacs sliced his clearance narrowly past the near post.

United captain Adam Bartlett had a quiet first half, collecting several crosses and dealing with a couple of shots, and was replaced at half time by Dan Connor.

David Cotterill had a 35-yard chip tipped over the bar by Connor who later kept out the City substitute’s long-range angled drive.

But Hereford showed their sharpness in front of goal when Canham doubled their lead in the 52nd minute after nipping in to lob the ball over the outrushing Cornall.

Hereford should have added a third goal five minutes later when Manset surged forward after winning the ball inside the Swansea half.

However, with two United players in a much better position, the Frenchman chose to go alone and was eventually crowded out by the visiting defence.

Swansea’s best opportunity of the evening fell to Shefki Kuqi who somehow headed wide from inside United’s six-yard box.

Both teams made a wrath of changes in the last 30 minutes.

And Hereford, in comparison to the first half, finished with 11 different players on the pitch.

Hereford: Bartlett (Connor, 46 min), Green (Edwards, 72 min), Valentine (Knight, 74 min), Kovacs (Townsend 69 min), Rose (Djebi-Zadi, 72 min), Lunt (Stratford, 46 min), McQuilkin (Weir, 74 min), Thompson (Sheldon, 69 min) Manset (McLaggan, 64 min), Canham (Malsom, 58 min), Fleetwood (Moore, 64 min).

Swansea City's starting line-up: De Vries, Williams, Rangel, Lopez, Tate, Monk, Dyer, Gower, Beattie, Dobbie, Van Der Dun.

Referee: Andre Marriner.

Attendance: 1,568 (396 from Swansea).

Goals: McQuilkin, 21 min, 1-0; Canham, 52 min, 2-0.