TIVVY ARCHIVE

Hereford 1 - 0 Tiverton Town

Last season’s two promoted sides from the Evo Stick South & West Division One resumed their acquaintance at Edgar Street on a pleasant summer's night in the Evo Stick Southern Premier Division. The previous season both games had been close encounters with Tiverton holding Hereford to a 1-1 draw at Ladysmead and going down 2-1 in the return fixture in Herefordshire. Twenty-three fans from Tiverton in a crowd of 2,424 travelled to support the team buoyed by an opening day victory over Bishop's Stortford at Ladysmead three days earlier.

The only changes to the starting line up from Saturday’s victory was Ben Mammola returning to the defence and Levi Landricombe starting up front back from his injury lay off. The two players they replaced Ben Carter and Jordan Rogers settled for positions on the bench. The early action saw a lot of possession for Hereford but they lacked a real cutting edge. Tivvy were looking to hit the hosts on the break using the hold-up play of Owen Howe and the pace of Landricombe supplemented by the midfield craft of Ollie Knowles and Jamie Short.

Tiverton’s defence was looking very assured with Tom Gardner, Mammola and Jamie Price in a three being supplemented by Callum Hall and Nick Hurst as the wing backs. Hereford's first notable effort came on twenty-seven minutes when Pablo Haysham had a shot smothered well by the impressive ex-Torquay keeper Martin Rice. A couple of further efforts from Hereford followed with a John Mills over-head kick sailing harmlessly wide and a Haysham header well off target. Tiverton responded well with a Landricombe effort that was dealt with by Hereford’s ex Tivvy Keeper Martin Horsell. The Tivvy fans were nearly bouncing up and down after forty-two minutes when a cultured ball from Knowles found Howe in the box but the prolific striker put the ball over the top of the Hereford bar when well placed to open the scoring. Half time came at the wrong time for Tivvy who were looking to assert some of their own pressure but a 0-0 score line was a fair reflection of the half.

The second half saw Hereford looking for that breakthrough and they had numerous corners and efforts at the Tivvy goal after the restart. From one of those corners they hit the top of Rice’s bar and then followed a Jamie Molyneux’s shot that was also saved by Rice with his legs when Molyneux’s was well placed. With the impressive Mike Landricombe playing the anchor role, breaking up play and protecting the back line and the defence marshalled expertly by Price Hereford didn’t look like they were going to score from open play. The whole team defended from the front and it took a cruel twist of fate to enable Hereford to take the lead. On eighty-one minutes Haysham - the same player who won a penalty in the corresponding fixture last season off Steve Kingdon - won a penalty this season for a similar incident this time Hurst being the unfortunate player to concede the disputed penalty. Despite Tiverton’s players, fans and management being unhappy with the decision a penalty was given and Mills converted the resulting spot kick. There is video coverage on Hereford Goals and Tivvy 12th man sites on twitter for you to make your own minds up but in the end of the day it’s not going to change the result.

Tivvy didn’t threaten much after the penalty incident and ultimately went back to Devon with no points. However, there were a lot of positives to be gained from the performance and to come back disappointed from Hereford shows how much this club has progressed and bodes well for the rest of the season.

Hereford: Martin Horsell, Jimmy Oates, James Bowen, Keyon Reffell, Jack Deaman, Mark Preece, Jamie Molyneux, Calvin Dinsley, John Mills, Pablo Haysham, Mike Symons.
Goal: John Mills 81pen

Tiverton Town: Martin Rice, Nick Hurst, Callum Hall (Liam Gregory), Jamie Price, Ben Mammola, Tom Gardner (Ben Carter),Jamie Short, Ollie Knowles, Owen Howe, Levi Landricombe (Jordan Rogers), Mike Landricombe.

Attendance: 2,424