By Nathan Jackson
December 8 2007

Lincoln City had to play for more than 80 minutes with 10 men after Gary Croft was sent off, and in the end the extra 4 men showed as Hereford ran out 3-1 winners at a cold Edgar Street. City created several chances but only had a Lee Frecklington effort to show for it and are again hovering around the relegation zone area, at least we have two home games to come.

City kicked off the game and were on top for the opening stages with only John McCombe denying N'Guessan a free run on goal. City continued to press but were almost caught on the counter attack, thankfully Lee Frecklington was there to clear the ball.

Another Hereford attack saw Bencharif clear it behind for a corner, it was floated in and after a scramble a huge shout of handball saw the linesman put his flag up, the referee awarded a penalty and sent Croft off for denying an apparant goalscoring opportunity. Robinson stepped up and put the penalty away.

City coninuted to press despite the set back and Frecklington headed just wide from a Green cross. N'Guessan low drive was saved by Brown before the Imps won a free kick on the edge of the box. Kerr laid it off to Frecklington and he sent a bullet to Brown, the goalkeeper apparantly getting a finger to it. The resulting corner was dropped by Brown and Frecklington had the simple task of tapping into an empty net to give City a deserved equaliser.

Guinan almost put Hereford back into a lead against the run of play, but thankfully Smith prevented him from doing so before the Imps won another free kick. Kerr's set piece was punched clear by Brown. The first major incident of inconsistency from the ref came when Robinson clearly handballed and the ref gave nothing at all, impartial my arse.

Forrester was then booked for kicking the ball away, something that Hereford players had done several times but not got punished for but then the striker almost gave City the deserved lead when his curling shot went straight into the arms of Brown.

Then, against the run of play and only their second shot since the goal, McClenahan gave the hosts the lead again with a stunning shot from the edge of the box. That came just before half time and no more noteworthy incidents happend after that.

Guinan volleyed well over before Bencharif was booked for shoulder-barging, again something that the referee had been perfectly happy for the Hereford play to do. The Algerian defender almost brought the Imps level before Brown managed to just palm his effort off the line.

A slow second half was being controlled again by the Imps but City were struggling to create any chances so Forrester was replaced by John-Lewis, Forrester going off clearly annoyed by the abuse that a Lincoln fan in the upper tier had aimed his way during half time.

Kerr was booked for dissent, again something Hereford players had done several times before hand without even having a talking to. Oh, what's this, oh the referee has realised he can book Hereford players and he did so when he booked Robinson for kicking the ball away.

Wright's header was just kept out by Brown before City made a double chance with Hand and Dodds coming on for Kerr and Green. Benjamin replaced Guinan for Hereford. Within minutes and the points were Hereford's as a suspiciously offside looking Johnson's shot rebounded to Hereford's Ben Smith and he shot past City's Ben Smith to make it 3.

Dodds came close to a consolation for City but his effort his the post and came out again, the referee would have probably found some reason to disallow it anyway.