Oxford City's winning run was ended this afternoon at the MGroup Stadium as play-off chasing Hereford came from behind to beat them 2-1

Leading through a Jayden Carbon goal City saw Yusifu Ceesay level before the break before Remaye Campbell tapped home a soft second goal to keep the away side's promotion hopes  alive.

City, safe and secure after just one defeat in ten games, were on top in the opening exchanges and a Phil Croker header went close to giving them a fifth minute lead. They didn’t have long to wait for the opener when Croker recycled a deep cross and played in to Tom Scott who in turn fed Carbon, heading one way then twisting to face the other. Hereford fell for the dummy and Carbon calmly rolled the ball into the bottom left corner to make it 1-0 with his sixth of the season.

However, City's early domination didn't last and the opener merely served as a red rag to the Bulls.

Little had been seen of the away side as an attacking force until then, but from that moment the roles were reversed. On 21 minutes Omari Sterling-James nicked the ball on half way and led a 4v2 counter, City tracked back, the ball bobbled off a couple of despairing shins and Ceesay drilled the ball into the bottom left corner to level at 1-1.

 It took an excellent save from the returning Kai McKenzie Lyle to palm away a Campbell effort after 35 enthralling minutes and 1-1 was a fair score as the teams drew breath at half time on a scorching hot Oxfordshire afternoon.

Hereford turned up the heat even further after the break.

First they saw a Tate Campbell blast smack against the bar and Campbell pick out my car in the car park rather than the easier target of the gaping goal but they were starting to build pressure with Jaiden White forcing another save before disaster struck. Sterling-James  tried his luck from distance again and this time the ball squirmed through the gloves of McKenzie Lyle to offer Campbell the simplest of tasks to tap the ball into the unguarded net from right on the line.

City lifted themselves for one more push but the visitors had more to play for and battled for everything, seeing the game out and still looking the more likely to score again.

A fine game in front of a bumper crowd with City once again showing that they are a match for teams in the top half of the season but ;losing out by a fine margin.

CITY

McKenzie-Lyle, Drewe, Croker, Jones, Willcox, Roddy (Potter 90), Ashby, Scott (Fleet 64), McEachran. Parker, Carbon (Andrews 64),

SUBS
Coyle, Putman

Att: 1,455

Report by Chris Williams, pictures Simon Godfrey