Saturday, December 16, 2000

HEREFORD United racked up their eighth home draw in the Nationwide Conference this season after they failed to find a way past bottom club Kettering Town on Saturday.

Graham Turner's men did record their first clean sheet since the beginning of October with a generally assured defensive display, although this did little to appease an increasingly restless Edgar Street crowd.

The Bulls' failure to make an impression at the opposite end was not for lack of effort on their part, but the rub of the green was very much with the Poppies.

However, it was Town who almost gave their hosts an early shock when, with just two minutes gone, on-loan Peterborough United man Niall Inman picked out Craig Norman, who stooped to head the ball inches wide.

Inman tried his luck 11 minutes later with an audacious attempt from 30 yards which fizzed just off target, following a poor clearance from United keeper Scott Cooksey.

The Bulls responded immediately, but found that beating in-form Kettering stopper Ian Bowling was more difficult than the Poppies' lowly league position may have suggested.

On 17 minutes Bowling leapt across his goal to brilliantly fingertip away a well-directed header from Rob Elmes.

Cooksey then pulled off similar heroics two minutes before half-time to deflect a rasping 30-yard piledriver from Town defender Carl Adams over the bar.

If the first period had been evenly matched, United showed why they are 18 places above Kettering by pinning the visitors back throughout the second half.

From the kick-off, Gavin Williams charged at the Town back line and was only thwarted by a smart save from Bowling. Moments later Matt Clarke crossed from the right to Elmes, who found Phil Robinson, but he could only fire wide of Bowling's left-hand post.

The Bulls did find the net after 50 minutes but Elmes' effort was ruled out for offside, and Bowling then produced another fine save to keep out a Michael McIndoe header.

Another Elmes effort followed, the big striker mistiming his shot straight at Bowling, before both keepers had to perform in four frantic minutes of injury time.

First Cooksey put a 25-yard Inman effort around a post and then Bowling saved with his legs from substitute Steve Piearce.