A FIRST-MINUTE goal from Frome’s Lewis Haldane set up an entertaining match but Adrian Foster's men were eventually comfortably beaten at home by Hereford United on Saturday. 

Defender Mark Cooper returned from suspension to start at left-back and with Ollie Taylor returning from Woking and with Ben Thomson also on the bench after returning from injury, the Robins front line is starting to have a potent look to it.

It only took Frome 50 seconds to open the scoring as a cross-field ball from Matt Smith saw Hereford’s goakeeper Luke Wiliams race out of his penalty area, only to be beaten comprehensively to the ball by Haldane, who then turned and shot cleanly home into the unguarded net.

The 17th minute saw a Hereford free-kick hammered into the Frome defensive wall and as it came back out, a cross picked out Javia Roberts on the far post and after he drove it home but the visitors' celebrations were cut short by the raised flag of the linesman on the far side for offside.

Hereford looked to be getting stronger as the match progressed and their equaliser in the 20th minute was typical of the type of move that was going to give Frome problems all afternoon.

Right-back Josh Yorweth picked the ball up just inside the Robins half, ran at the defence, and after putting together a couple of clever interchanges with team-mates, he arrived unmarked in the Frome area and shot cleanly past Darren Chitty low into the far corner.

Frome continued to show the frailty in midfield that has cost them in recent matches but they rode their luck during the first half and went very close in the 40th minute as Aaron Rodriguez went on a mazy run that left four opponents floundering in his wake and as he set Haldane free, a cross to the far post saw Taylor just fail to squeeze a header over the line.

And as Smith followed up with a point blank shot, how the ball stayed out of the goal is a mystery.

Hereford should have taken the lead within 20 seconds of the start of the second half as the unmarked Bilal Yofai failed to get his stooping header on target from five yards out and Chitty had to be very alert to save a header from Serge Mor Diop that was heading for the far corner two minutes later.

The visitors finally moved in front in the 84th with a move similar to their first goal, as quick interchanges saw them leave several Frome defenders bypassed and Mor Diop was the beneficiary as he arrived in the Frome box and shot low and hard into the corner.

Mor Diop was also instrumental in the third goal that arrived a minute later as his pass found found substitute Dan Sullivan on the edge of the Frome box and he scored the goal of the game as he curled a beauty into the far top corner of Chitty’s goal.

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