TAYLOR IS HERO, BUT BULLS ARE SO GR-EIGHT
HEREFORD romped through in a contender for the round’s most one-sided tie.
The game was over as a contest as early as the fourth minute when Town keeper Aaron Bufton was red-carded.
Bufton came outside of his area to grab the ball as Jamie Molyneux raced through, leaving referee Dale Wootton little option.
Skipper Lewis Taylor drew the short straw of donning the gloves.
But the left-back turned in a heroic display – saving a penalty and pulling off a handful of fine saves.
“It wasn’t the start we wanted after four minutes to have to put our captain and left-back in goal,” admitted Godalming manager Simon Funnell.
“No-one stepped up to go in goal apart from Lewis and he has come out of this with a lot of credit.
“He’s the only one who volunteered, in front of 1,700 people, and that’s why he’s my captain.
“But that’s not to take anything away from the Hereford boys. You could see the difference in class and they were superior.”
Hereford boss Pete Beadle added to the praise for the stand-in keeper.
“That’s exactly what you ask from your skipper – you want him to put the armband on and lead by example and that’s exactly what he did,” he said.
John Mills added the extra punishment to the red card by curling a free-kick around a poorly positioned wall.
For the remainder of the first period, Taylor was rarely out of the game, either dealing with shots or watching them sail harmlessly by.
The stand-in keeper had no chance with the second goal on 20 minutes.
Mills forced a corner on the right and James Bowen’s perfectly placed corner gave Mark Preece the chance to head home. Nine minutes later, Garyn Preen made good ground on the left to tee up Mills who couldn’t miss.
Taylor’s one real error came on 53 minutes when he spilled a Mike McGrath shot into the path of Mills.
But the keeper denied Mills a fourth goal three minutes later, diving down to his right to save the spotkick. Pablo Haysham headed in a Molyneux cross and then shared a neat onetwo with Keyon Reffell, who notched the sixth.
Haysham scored the seventh with a header from a Bowen cross before Preen rounded things off.
“It was a confidence boost for us,” admitted