STOURPORT Swifts suffered a chastening experience this week when they were humbled 6-0 at high-flying Hereford, writes Nick Pullen.

Playing in front of a huge 2,231 Edgar Street crowd, Swifts managed to keep Hereford at bay for the opening 20 minutes and went close to scoring themselves when Reece Shilvock rattled the crossbar, before the goals began to flow.

Former Gloucester and Worcester City striker Mike Symons was on fire, netting a hat-trick and laying on countless other chances.

Swifts manager Mark Phillips said: "We were 2-0 down at half time then Hereford scored twice in as many minutes on resumption and that killed the game.

“In truth we couldn’t cope with Symons.

"Hereford are exceptional at this level of football.

“My job is to try and pick the players up now and hopefully we’ll get back to normal this Saturday when we entertain Coventry Sphinx.”

The irony for Swifts was the fact they stopped a drought of seven games without a win last Saturday when they beat Long Eaton 3-1.

Goals from James Hill, Joe Phillips and Jack Rogers did the trick before Long Eaton pulled a late goal back through Bradley Wells.

Phillips hopes to have Ben Maund and Jamie Hyde back in contention to face Sphinx following injury.