Gravesend & N 2 Hereford 5

ONE step forward, two back. Gravesend & Northfleet's season of extremes continued with Saturday’s wholly unacceptable home defeat by Hereford.

Having basked in the deep satisfaction of the previous week’s win in the Nationwide Conference at Exeter, the Fleet’s notorious fallibility at Stonebridge Road this season was underlined once more with an eighth home defeat in the league.

Tonight (Monday) the Fleet play a training match against Gillingham. Their supporters will hope that more than one defender will be among the potential new recruits following manager Andy Ford’s promise of new signings after Saturday’s shambolic defending.

Hereford, without a win in their last four games, put their championship campaign back on course courtesy of their hosts generosity.

The Fleet defence looked like an accident waiting to happen and Ford grimly conceded: “Four of their goals were down to individual mistakes and you cannot legislate for that.”

“When Hereford got their fourth, our heads dropped and we lost our shape. We’ve got to be more professional. They had two attackers and we had four defenders and that can’t happen.

“We got off to a flying start with an early goal and we were still celebrating when they equalised.”

With neighbours Charlton and Gillingham without matches on the day, the Fleet found themselves in the business of trying to win new friends and influence others among the many ‘floating’ fans among the crowd of 1,230.

They made the best possible early impact with a goal after four minutes from Ben Abbey. After that it was all downhill.

Two minutes later, goalkeeper Paul Wilkerson tripped Robert Purdie and skipper Tony James equalised from the resulting penalty.

David Brown gave Hereford a 13th minute lead when he knocked in the rebound after Michael Rose’s free kick struck a post. Fleet centre-back Lee Shearer, who had repeatedly given the ball away, was eventually punished in the 22nd minute when Steve Guinan made it 3-1.

Abbey gave the Fleet and their fans hope of a comeback with his second goal of the game in the 38th minute but the respite was momentary.

Hereford made it 4-2 with Hereford’s 70th goal of the season in the 68th after Wilkerson had been wrong-footed. Guinan rubbed salt into the Fleet’s gaping wounds with a fifth in the 89th minute after rifling home the rebound from Brown’s shot.

The club and their supporters are still no nearer breathing easily as the spectre of relegation continues to hang over Stonebridge Road.

Gravesend: Wilkerson; Gledhill, Shearer, Moore, Perkins; Owen, Perkins, Protheroe, Drury; Abbey, Essandoh. Substitutions: McKimm for Perkins 46 mins, Haworth for Gledhill 70 mins. Not used: Duku, Pinnock, O'Reilly. Attendance: 1,230.