From the Archives - Bulls defeat Ten Man Burnley

Twenty years ago Hereford United were in the same league as Burnley, Blackpool and Cardiff City.

And on Saturday September 14th, Burnley were the visitors to Edgar Street. The previous season the Bulls had defeated Burnley 3-0.

There was a terrific start to the game between two in form teams. Hereford came close in the very first minute, only to be denied by Andy Marriott, but Burnley were just about the better of the two sides.

However just nine minutes into the game Burnley were down to ten men when John Francis was sent off in near farcical circumstances. There was an incident off the ball that left Francis down injured and whilst he was receiving treatment he was told by referee Peter Jones that he was going to be sent off.

Jones later confirmed that he'd been sent off for elbowing Hereford's Mel Pejic but after the game both Francis and Pejic confirmed it hadn't happened.

Three minutes later a Simon Brain shot was saved by Marriott but the rebound fell kindly for Steve Lowndes who made no mistake.

Eli almost put Burnley level just after half-time but on 56 minutes Hereford doubled their lead. Mark Monington carelessly lost possession of the ball just outside his own box. That enabled Brain to cross the ball for Peter Heritage to score.

The Bulls then settled for that in what then became a tedious second half although Burnley should have had the clearest of penalties right at the end of the game only for Jones to incredibly award a free kick for handball outside the box.

The result lifted Hereford into second place, amongst a cluster of four clubs on 13 points with Rotherham United now in first place.

Hereford United: Tony Elliott, Chris Fry, Greg Downs, Andy Theodosiou, Steve Devine, Steve Lowndes, Derek Hall, Mel Pejic, Simon Brain, Peter Heritage, Jon Narbett. Subs not used: David Titterton, Henry Caffrey.

Burnley: Andy Marriott, David Hamilton (Joe Jakub 15), Steve Harper, Steve Davis, John Pender, Mark Monington, Roger Eli, Mark Yates, John Francis, Mike Conroy, Andy Farrell. Sub not used: Ian Bray.

Referee: Peter Jones (Loughborough).

Attendance: 4,400.

BN would like to thank Tony Scholes at Claretsmad for his help with the above article.

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