Money, Facilities, Potential and Location.

In his column in yesterday's Hereford Times, John Trewick mentioned the difficulties in bringing players to Edgar Street.

"In trying to recruit players, four criteria spring to mind immediately: money, facilities, potential and location," wrote Trewick.

"As a club, we don’t really score that highly in any of them.

"Over the past two or three weeks, I have tried to recruit quite a number of players and found the way blocked for many reasons.

"When you show a player around your ground, the first impression is bound to make a difference, too.

"We had a player over recently from France.

"He flew in and came straight to the Birmingham City training ground and played in a friendly against Birmingham there.

"He played the whole game and I had a chat with him afterwards – everything seemed right.

"On first impression, he seemed a decent player. That was on the Monday and he was due to come down here on the following day – he came to the ground and promptly disappeared.

"He said it was not the type of place he wanted to be at."

Trewick went on to say that players sometimes have unreasonable expectations.

"Attitude is a massive thing and, when players are wrapped up in cotton wool from an early age, the move from a big club to a smaller one is sometimes a culture shock."

Perhaps it is better to recruit from Non-League?

"There is a theory that you are better off getting players who have come up from non-league because they have been playing men’s, competitive football; they are used to the challenges and the knocks," Trewick continued.

"Who is to say that is wrong – if a player can play, he can play, whatever his level.

"Moving up can be a chance and a challenge and if they have that competitive attitude and spirit then they will continue to strive to improve. But, you flip the coin over and ask why they are in non-league in the first place."

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