Relegation battle goes on as Bedford Town let 2-0 lead slip against Hereford

The six pointer saw Bedford’s biggest crowd of the season, and feelings were mixed at the end of the game as fans of both sides either felt a draw was a fair result or that two points had been dropped.

The Eagles moved up to 17th in the division, leapfrogging over King’s Lynn Town, and now visit promotion hopefuls South Shields on Saturday before the last game of the season at home to Scarborough Athletic.

Player news was good, as the club successfully appealed against the soft red card Jack Jenkins received on Good Friday, Ellis Brown was back from suspension, and Josh Phillips returned from injury.

Boss Lee Bircham kept the same starting line up from the King’s Lynn trip on Easter Monday, adding Ellis Brown and Phillips to the subs bench.

Although the visitors are in the bottom four, two recent away wins against sides vying for the play-offs was not to be sniffed at, and the Bulls showed some good passing football.

However, Bedford took the lead on 18 minutes.

A free kick on the left byline, and just outside the area, was taken by Josh Castiglione, but a wall of defenders stopped the ball, but only making a half clearance to George Moncur, and his cross into the danger zone was met by the head of Ryan Doherty who directed the ball into the net.

Minutes later, Moncur latched onto a long pass out of defence, outpaced Lewis Hudson, and tried to curl the ball past Richardson from the right corner of the area, only to see the away guardian dive to save.

Bedford doubled the score just before the half-hour mark, when Moncur’s shot/cross from the left byline was blocked, and the ball rebounded out to Castiglione, who returned the ball with interest to bulge the back of the net.

Greg Sandiford replaced the injured Lewis Green for the second half, and was put into action very early on when Hereford attacked down the left, pushed inside and a shot went just over the bar.

The away side then had two penalty claims waved away by the referee.

From the first one, Kyle Howkins dropped to the ground, and it was unclear whether he had been touched or not.

The second one could have gone either way, when T’Sharne Gallimore got the ball off Mikey Lane in the area.

Lane went down, and the sweeping gesture from the referee to indicate play on drew howls of derision from the away support.

But it wasn’t too long before Hereford pulled a goal back when Hudson headed in from a corner in the 57th minute.

Within seven minutes, the visitors drew level with a controversial goal when Ashmore got down well to save, but couldn’t hold on, and Andy Williams, lurking on the goal line, looking offside, swept the ball into the net.

With the metaphorical wind in their sails, Hereford came at their hosts with George Munday firing over the bar.

As play evened out, both sides looked for the elusive winner.

Sam Brown’s throw found Moncur, who squared the ball to Castiglione, but the resulting shot took a deflection, and the sting out of the shot.

Hereford then had another penalty shout, when Aaron Skinner turned his marker in the area, and then looked to have thrown himself to the ground. Again, the referee wasn’t impressed.

Into the last 10 minutes of normal time, Skinner fired over the bar, then Ellis Brown did the same at the other end.

Freddy Willcox then put the ball the wrong side of the left hand post, before skying a shot over the bar.

As the final whistle blew, an air of anti-climax came from both sets of the 1,609 supporters in the ground.