AFTER thrilling their supporters with a sparkling display in their previous home game against Scarborough, Hereford showed the other side of the coin as they blundered to defeat against Conference newcomers Grays Athletic.

A two-goal loss sounds bad enough, but the scoreline does not reveal that the visitors had two efforts booted off the line by Ryan Green and saw two others come back off the woodwork.

Tony James, so dominant against Scarborough, was one of the principal villains, getting caught in possession -- as he had in the defeat against Cambridge -- and allowing Tony Battersby to fire Grays into a 14th minute lead.

But he was by no means the only poor performer on a day which found many of United's players well below the standard required.

Hereford boss Graham Turner was certainly in no mood to be charitable.

"I never dreamed in 100 years that we could be so poor," he said. "We bottled it and one or two were missing today. There was a lack of real competitive edge. No-one wanted to pass the ball or work to pass the ball.

"We had a decent start to the game and conceded a bad goal. That is always going to set you back but that's when a test of character comes along."

He added: "There was nothing about us -- if we pass it and lose, that's fine, if we go and compete and lose then that's fine, but we have done nothing today.

"You have to make the chance to play and we didn't do that."

Hereford made a useful start with Adam Stansfield missing a good chance after nine minutes, but after Battersby fired in from the edge of the area to give the visitors the lead, the performance quickly tailed off.

Jon Brady was unlucky with a cracking drive which flew just over from the edge of the area, but there was precious little else -- at either end -- to stir the blood.

In the second-half, Green booted a header from Dean Brennan off the line in the 74th minute and Hereford had another let-off a minute later when Gary Hooper's shot rebounded off a post.

Green was Hereford's saviour again on 81 minutes, clearing Stuart Thurgood's header from the line and the Grays' skipper was unlucky with the return effort which bounded to safety off the crossbar.

Tamika Mkandawire and substitute Danny Carey-Bertram had efforts well saved by Ashley Bayes as Hereford belatedly came to life.

But if fans were hoping their Edgar Street favourites would pull something out at the last minute then they were to be sadly disappointed.

Three minutes into injury time, Brennan's perseverance paid off when he dragged the ball back from the bye-line and Hooper showed quickness of thought to nip in front of Craig Mawson to steer home the second.

Hereford: Mawson, Geen, Mkandawire, James (Carey-Bertram 71 min), Beckwith, Jeannin, Coldicott, Purdie (Stanley 60 min), Brady, Ipoua, Stansfield. Subs not used: Brown, Evans, Ferrell.

Referee: I Scarr.

Attendance: 2,997.