Cheltenham Town's bid to extend their stay in Coca-Cola League One took a significant blow with Hereford United emerging from the this battle of the basement clubs with maximum points.

The home side, now without a win in 10 games, looked good value for the win with 24 minutes to play at Whaddon Road, but two late goals from Manchester United loanee Sam Hewson turned this contest on its head to inject life into his side's own survival chase and leave Martin Allen with a mountain to climb with 18 games remaining of this campaign.

Both sides emerged from a highly eventful first half with a goal apiece though minus key players after this full-bloodied derby had claimed Nicholas Bignall and Hereford's first choice central half pairing plus one of the replacements through injury, handing the home side a narrow advantage as the teams swapped ends.

Lloyd Owusu's second goal of the contest 11 minutes after the restart should have been enough, but Hereford fought their way back into the lead late on and with games at Stockport and Leeds United to follow over the next seven days, Cheltenham are beginning to run out of time in their quest to avoid the drop.

TEAM NEWS: Cheltenham Town boss Martin Allen made three changes to the side that lost 5-3 to MK Dons at Whaddon Road 14 days ago, reverting to a 4-3-3 formation. In came Damian Spencer, the hatrick hero on that afternoon, joined in attack by Nicholas Bignall. Meanwhile Drissa Diallo returned to his central defensive role following a knee injury. John Finnigan, Ashley Vincent dropped to the bench as Josh Low missed out. Former Robins Steve Guinan and Jennison Myrie-Williams started the match for the Bulls.

4th minute: David Bird presented goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi with his first save of the afternoon with four minutes played, striking a right-footed volley on target from the edge of the box.

13 GOAL: Cheltenham Town 0-1 Hereford United
Another calamitous mix-up in the Cheltenham defence, this time between Scott Brown and Lee Ridley, handed Hereford another goal out of nothing following the game to forget at Edgar Street earlier in the campaign. It all came about after Myrie-Williams cut a ball back to Kris Taylor, who aimed a cross into the Cheltenham six yard area which should have been dealt with by the Cheltenham number one, but Ridley collided into him and the ball spilled to Guinan, who steered it on target and Febian Brandy, on loan from Manchester United, touched it over for a goal on his Bulls' debut.

19: Spencer lashed a left footer high and wide from 20 yards.

20: Hereford were unfortunate not to have extended their lead after Guinan ran onto Taylor's through-ball down the inside right channel, but the striker, Cheltenham's hero at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium three seasons, ago poked it wide of the right post.

25: Spencer went close mid-way through the first half, but he couldn't keep his clever effort on target after some good work by Bignall down the left.

30 SUBSTITUTION: Cheltenham's plans received another setback half an hour in when Bignall was withdrawn with a cut eye and replaced by Ashley Vincent. He took up a role on the right of the three-pronged attack, with Owusu moving to the middle and Spencer out on the left.

37 SUBSITUTION: Club physiotherapists Ian Weston and Jamie Pitman had been busy patching up their men up to this point, with Steve Guinan, Lloyd Owusu, Bignall, Josh Gowling, and Dean Beckwith (on three occasions) all requiring treatment to head injuries. Gowling however was the second casualty of this full-bloodied derby, forced out of the game through injury eight minutes before the break.

41: Cheltenham missed a gilt-edged opportunity to get back on terms with the interval looming. Vincent flicked on Russell's measured ball and Owusu, in an acre of space and 18 yards from goal, beat the offside trap but dragged his shot of the left upright.

43 SUBSTITUTION: Hereford had lost their original centre half pairing by the 43rd minute, Beckwith conceding defeat through injury having had a bruising afternoon. He was replaced by Ben Smith.

45+3 GOAL: Cheltenham Town 1, Hereford United 1
Cheltenham claimed the equaliser deep into first half stoppage time, taking advantage of Hereford's patched up defence from a corner. Alex Russell swung in a corner from the left, Vincent headed it back across the goal and Owusu applied an acrobatic finish into the roof of the net to restore parity.

45+6: Brown atoned for his mistake for the goal deep into first half injury time with a smart save to deny Brandy after Ridley carelessly conceded possession 20 yards from goal.

HALF TIME: 1-1

46 SUBSTITUTION: Hereford United are forced into a third substitution, with Broadhurst - a 37th minute replacement himself - unable to continue. The Bulls' therefore lost their third central defender of the afternoon as Simon Johnson is pressed into action.

49: Hereford United goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi pulls off an instinctive save to block Vincent's effort, who arrived at the back post to meet the ball following a pinpoint Russell free-kick.

56 GOAL: Cheltenham Town 2, Hereford United 1
Owusu registered his second goal of the game 11 minutes after the restart to hand his side the iniative against an increasingly deflated Hereford side. Ian Westlake forced a corner on the right-hand side, which the former Leeds man took himself, picking out the big striker who made no mistake with his header from eight yards for his eighth goal of the campaign.

61: The Hereford fans felt they should have had a penalty around the hour mark after the pacey Brandy burst into the box on a dangerous run. Ridley, though, shadowed the Manchester United all the way and cleared the danger with a superbly timed tackle.

63 BOOKING: Sam Gwynne went into the book for a clumsy challenge on Bird.

64 SUBSTITUTION: Shane Duff was the fifth player to leave the pitch through injury, exiting the game in the 64th minute. John Finnigan replaced the centre half as Westwood moved inside to partner Diallo while Bird dropped to right back.

65: Westlake saw a free-kick cannon back off the left post after the midfielder was upended on the corner of the Hereford box, out ot the right.

66 GOAL: Cheltenham Town 2, Hereford United 2
The visitors got themselves back into the contest 24 minutes from time through a searing strike from Sam Hewson. Vincent brought another menacing Brandy run by to an end with a clumsy tackle 20 yards from goal, and Richard Rose touched it into the path of the Manchester United man who lashed it into the top right-hand corner of Brown's goal.

71: Brandy caused further problems with a little under 20 minutes remaining, this time with a deflected shot from an angle drop narrowly over the crossbar.

74: Guinan draws a decent stop from Brown after the striker connected to Taylor's centre from the left.

77: Spencer fired over on the turn from 12 yards after a decent passage of play by the home side.

81 GOAL: Cheltenham Town 2, Hereford United 3
Hereford United turned it around and claimed their third nine minutes from time to stun Whaddon Road. John Finnigan conceded a free-kick out to the right of his penalty area and Hewson thumped another one, wrong-footing Brown with a deflected effort before it nestled in the bottom right-hand corner.

86 SUBSTITUTION: Allen's last throw of the dice was to throw on Elvis Hammond at the expense of his right back, David Bird.

89: Ridley struck one out of the ground as the game drew to a close. Then Owusu was a whisker away from notching his hatrick with a towering header at the far post following a cross by Spencer, but it travelled the wrong side of the post.

90: Westwood is booked for pulling back Brandy 20 yards from goal.

90+3 SENDING OFF: Cheltenham's miserable afternoon was compounded by a straight red card for Ridley, presumably for something he said to the referee as Russell prepared to take a 20-yard free-kick. The midfielder eventually pulled it wide of the left post.

FULL TIME: 2-3

CHELTENHAM TOWN (4-4-2): Brown; Westwood, Diallo, Duff (Finnigan 64), Ridley; Russell, Bird (Hammond 86), Westlake, Bignall (Vincent 30); Owusu, Spencer. Subs not used: Connor, Puddy (Gk).

HEREFORD UNITED (4-4-2): Gulacsi; Rose, Gowling (Broadhurst 37, Johnson 46), Beckwith (Smith 43), Taylor; Gwynne, Hewson, Diagouraga, Myrie-Williams; Guinan, Brandy. Subs not used: Done, Veiga (Gk).

REFEREE: PN Gibbs (West Midlands)

ATTENDANCE: 4,660 (1,295 from Hereford)