Once again, the Bulls failed to collect even a share of the spoils from their away travels losing by the odd goal to hosts Grimsby Town. A goal in each half from Gary Jones was enough to eclipse a Rob Purdie penalty and give all three points to a slightly fortunate Mariners outfit.
Manager Graham Turner named an unchanged starting eleven from the previous weekends encounter with the only change on the bench seeing Andy Ferrell replace Alex Jeannin. There were early raids from both teams with Grimsby looking to enforce their home advantage although on six minutes a Purdie corner looked to trouble the home defence before being cleared up field. A couple of darting runs by Stuart Fleetwood showed that he had the beating of the Mariners back division but in the ninth minute the Bulls contrived to gift a goal to Gary Jones when he was allowed a free angled shot from inside the six yard box. It took a while for United to get their passing game going but in the tenth minute Alan Connell tried his luck from thirty yards only to see his effort miss to the left while a Williams effort whistled over the bar on nineteen minutes. Then, in the twenty sixth minute Hereford received some reward for their efforts when Rob Purdie was hacked down in the box. Purdie picked himself up and coolly converted the spot kick to deservedly level the score. The Bulls continued to have their share of possession and Fleetwood was on target with a couple of decent attempts including a fierce cross shot which keeper Philip Barnes did well to hold. As the half drew to a close Grimsby's Ricky Ravenhill tested Wayne Brown with a snap shot but the Hereford keeper was well placed to collect.
After the restart United continued to probe and managed to get Fleetwood away on several occasions without reward. Alan Connell was always in the thick of the action and showed some nice touches and good distribution to the wide areas. Just after the hour mark Tony Thorpe collected a slack clearance out of defence and he fed Gary Jones who fired his second goal from twelve yards. Hereford still had time to create several more good opportunities and Andy Williams was guilty of being flatfooted when a Fleetwood cross flashed across the goalmouth. Hereford introduced Tim Sills as a replacement for Dean Beckwith late in the game as they searched for an equaliser while Rob Purdie gave way for Luke Webb. Sills was fouled by Andy Butler and Webb's pinpoint free kick was met by the head of Mkandawire but unfortunately, the ball grazed the wrong side of the crossbar. Connell did get the ball into the net close to the end but was rightly penalised for handball and collected a yellow for his indiscretion. Shortly after referee Mason brought a halt to the proceedings leaving the Hereford players wondering where the next away point would come from.
Overall, this was not a bad showing from the Bulls in a match where sufficient chances were created to have won the game. Regrettably though a couple of poor defensive errors were punished. At the moment, the usually dominant Mkandawire is not at his best while at the other end the undoubtedly talented Andy Williams may care to recall the never say die attitude of the departed Adam Stansfield! The attendance was recorded as 4147 including about 130 loyal Herefordians.
Grimsby: Barnes, McDermott, Fenton, Butler, Croft, Bone, Bolland, Ravenhill, Toner, Thorpe, Jones.
Subs not used: Newey, Beagrie, Boshell, Murray, North.
United: Brown, Beckwith (Sills 80), Mkandawire, Giles, McClenahan, Rose, Connell, Purdie (Webb 80), Travis, Williams, Fleetwood.
Subs not used: Thompson, Ferrell, Gulliver.