Hereford United 3 Coventry City 1
Thoughts of a confidenceboosting stroll through round two of the Carling Cup turned into a nightmare for Micky Adams and Coventry City.
After a week in which the Ricoh Arena side lost their prize asset Gary McSheffrey to Birmingham City, Adams must have been looking for some solace.
It could hardly have been different. A virtually full strength City side were, in many ways, given a footballing lesson by a side who have only just emerged from almost a decade outside the league.
The game started dreadfully - they fell behind inside a minute - and, arguably, continued to get worse.
Simon Travis turned a hopeful pass forward but Elliott Ward misjudged the bounced horribly and watched the ball bounce over him and into the path of Stuart Fleetwood.
The former Cardiff City striker manoeuvred himself into some space as Matt Heath tried to block his path, and buried a low shot past Andy Marshall.
Hereford were clearly intent in showing their football credentials and knocked the ball around with confidence in all areas of the field. They also realised that the pace they had up front would cause the Coventry central defensive duo real problems.
Coventry could have pulled level after 14 minutes when the impressive Faysal ElIdrissi crossed in for Dele Adebola but the striker, who has had a disappointing start to the season headed weakly wide.
The game settled into an early pattern. Coventry, with Stephen Hughes and Colin Cameron operating in tandem in the centre of midfield, were winning plenty of possession and keeping the home side inside their own half.
But whenever the home side managed to cross the half way line with the ball at feet, Coventry visibly rocked.
Fleetwood had two further chances to add to the score but twice his finishing let him down when he only had Andy Marshall to beat.
It said a great deal about the balance of the first half that Adams will have been happy to have gathered his sided in the dressing room with just a one-goal deficit.
But if Coventry's travelling supporters were expecting an upturn in fortunes they were sadly disappointed.
In the 57th minute, Marshall came to the edge of his area to collect a harmless through ball. Andrew Whing was also in attendance but they seemed to leave it for each other and in nipped Fleetwood.
To their credit Coventrydid respond two minutes later when Dele Adebola - with two defenders hanging off him - managed to drill the ball into the net.
But Hereford were not to be denied. Again it took a Coventry mistake to allow Fleet-wood in. Ward tried to slide the ball back to Marshall, but failed to make strong enough contact and again Fleetwood was there to capitalise.
