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Hereford United defeated Ludlow Town by ten goals this evening in The Bulls first pre-season friendly. There were many new faces on show, both signed on and also trialists. Richard Rose, Gareth Sheldon and Tim Sills started for Hereford whilst trialists Steven May and Marcus Palmer also featured in the first half.
United took the lead early on in the game through striker Palmer after Sills had found Andy Williams on the right wing before crossing to Palmer to finish. Soon after, Williams turned scorer with a decent individual run and curling left foot effort into the top corner.
The Bulls were extremely comfortable and the lively Sills got himself on the scoresheet through a header from a Purdie corner. Sills again threatened and found himself scoring for fun in the next few minutes. Firstly, Sills worked hard to head the ball and set himself up for a turn and volley past the helpless Ludlow 'keeper.
May's lively running down the right wing from right back led to an opening for Sills, as he pounced to knock home his hattrick and a minute later he found himself scoring his fourth of the first half with a downwards header. United made it seven shortly before the half time break when the unlucky Ludlow defender, McCmullin failed to clear a Williams cross and the ball ended up deflecting into his own net.
Graham Turner decided to give run outs to many Hereford players in the second half, both trialists and signed on players. Stuart Fleetwood replaced Tim Sills, Sam Gwynne took the place of Rob Purdie, Simon Travis came on for Tamika Mkandawire whilst Dean Beckwith was subbed and Alex Jeannin took his place. There were many unknown trialists on show in the second half for Hereford, with number 19 taking the place of Gareth Sheldon and number 16 replacing Andy Ferrell.
The changes effected Hereford, as they could not get in to their free-scoring selfs in the early periods of the second half. Yet two clear cut penalties were awarded to The Bulls which Stuart Fleetwood scored from and also number 21 Alan Jones, on in the place of Marcus Palmer, grabbed his first goal of the evening. There was an appearence for an un-named centre back, number 25, who replaced Steven May before Hereford wrapped up victory with Fleetwood turning creater for number 21 to simply tap in and finish the evening off.
So a ten goal victory starts United's pre-season off nicely but against lower graded opposition, the scoreline should always be along those lines. Next up for The Bulls is a Birmingham XI in which they will face a much sterner test. With the trialists looking to make a name for themselves and also playing for a contract, The Bulls will be looking to up their game come Saturday.
Hereford Side (First Half): Brown, May, Mkandawire, Beckwith, Rose, Williams, Sheldon, Purdie, Ferrell, Palmer, Sills.
