HEREFORD booked their place in the FA Vase first round proper with a lacklustre 1-0 victory at Midland League Premier Division rivals Bardon Hill.

John Mills scored the only goal of the tie from the penalty spot in the second-half after Pablo Haysham had been tripped.

After a scrappy opening few minutes, Hereford’s usual attacking threat of Mills and Haysham started to cause problems for the hosts.

Mills judged the offside trap well to get in behind the defence and his cross found Haysham whose effort lacked power and was blocked by the covering defender.

Mills collected the ball from a quick throw-in and ghosted past two men inside the area, before cutting back for Haysham but he could only send his effort over the bar.

The best chance of the first-half fell to Hereford skipper Joel Edwards after playing a clever one-two with Mills.

But the left-back got too much on his shot and dragged it past a post.

A punt forward by Nathan Summers was chased down by Mills, and the striker turned his marker before shooting wide of a post.

The decisive moment of the game arrived with 15 minutes remaining.

Haysham controlled the ball 30 yards from goal, and after a neat flick past one defender, was upended in the box by a lunging challenge from a Bardon player.

Mills made no mistake, firing in from 12 yards, off the post, to give Hereford a slender advantage.

Max Kontic-Coveney replaced Ben Miller late on, before Haysham curled a right- foot shot just past the top corner after a short-corner routine.

Hereford manager Peter Beadle was disappointed with his side’s display.

“We’ve achieved getting into the next round, we’ve kept a clean sheet and that’s a positive for us,” said Beadle.

“But the rest of it, the sooner we forget about it the better.

“It wasn’t good enough standard-wise for us. I think we made poor decisions in good areas of the pitch. We lacked some real enthusiasm. But at the end of the day there’s a bigger picture to this as well.

“It’s not just about winning every game and going into the next round, there is a bigger picture of progression and I want to see us progress week-in week-out.”

Beadle added: “We’ve taken a step backwards, a big step backwards in performance.

“We’ve got the win but the performance was nowhere near where it should be.

“We’ve got players who are waiting to come in and we’re happy to change things around if people drop their standards and it won’t happen for more than a game.

“If it does, we will make sure that we change things.

“If you want to stay in this team then you have to do the basics and turn up and put a shift in.”

Hereford: Rivers, Green, Summers, Willets, Edwards, Hughes, Bonella, Birch, Miller, Haysham, Mills. Subs: Kontic- Coveney, Grant, Gwynne, Moreira, Oates