EDGAR Street has been the kindest of all Conference grounds to Leigh RMI in recent years but the luck ran out on holiday Tuesday as Hereford eased to a comfortable victory.

RMI had won on three of their last five visits to the Welsh border town but, now without a goal in three league games, they were second favourites in this fixture long before Craig Stanley's meticulously placed curler first divided the sides.

Adam Stansfield had caused carnage in the 4-3 win for the Bulls at Hilton Park in September and the former Yeovil striker continued to pose a threat.

Leigh 'keeper James Mann was equal to his first potshot when he smothered a close range effort after Chris Lane had fiound himself in the way of David Brown's crisp strike.

Mann made a comfortable stop to deny the roaming Rob Purdie early doors as well but he was powerless to prevent Stanley's prowling run and swerving coup de grace 25 minutes in.

Where Mann's input was an exercise in limiting the carnage and maintaining respectability, his opposite number Craig Mawson instigated the second goal after releasing the ball quickly to Graham Hyde.

Hyde - an FA Cup finallist in his youth with Sheffield Wednesday - then orchestrated a simple passing move that unbolted a ricketty RMI defence and culminated in a doubling of the margin courtesy of Jamie Pitman.

After being pegged back thrice at Leigh three months before, the Bulls were unlikely to rest on their laurels with the lead at two.

In the second half, they escalated the pressure on Mann with the reflexes of the number one enough to deny Stansfield and Brown before Malawian international defender Tamika Mkandawire struck the post.

The advent of Brown's spectacular volley was enough to satiate Hereford's bulging hunger for goals forty minutes before the end.

Even the debut of a thirty-seventh Leigh player of the term - Michael Warrick - wasn't enough of a straw to clutch at for even the most optimistic RMI fan.