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| Rob Purdie |
Rob Purdie was back playing in a Hereford shirt at Malvern last night.
BN asked him how it had come about.
"I had other offers," said Purdie.
"It was a tough decision.
"I wanted to come back to Hereford but the level they've dropped down to was a little bit of a tester. Obviously dropping down that far the money drops down as well.
"Not getting the coaching role at UITC I thought maybe I can't do it now because I need those two jobs to work together.
"But I spoke to Beads and I spoke to a few other clubs, weighed it all up and if I had gone to another club I would have been playing 50%.
"I'm 32 now, I've got a few years left in me and I want to be passionate who I play for. That was probably the main decision which brought me to Hereford.
"Tony (James) and I know we've got a bit of a job on the pitch to work with the youngsters. There will probably be times during the season when Tony and I will come in for a bit of flack when it's not quite going our way.
"Hopefully we can shoulder a bit of that responsibility and protect the young lads when it doesn't go our way this season.
"It's going to be a tough league, only one goes up.
"There are some big spenders in this league and in better locations than Hereford so we know we've got our work cut out this season."
Given Purdie had a nasty injury last season, his fitness level looked good last night.
"I've lost four kilos in the last two months to get myself match ready.
"I had a really bad injury last October. Tamworth wrote me off. The manager didn't think I'd come back.
"It's a seven to nine month rehabilitation and when you are over 30 it's a hard one.
"I tore my medial ligaments in my knee off the bone. But I was back playing in five and a half months but I wasn't sharp and needed an extra two or three months.
"Having lost four kilos I'm back to my playing weight which I feel a lot more comfortable with.
"The last three weeks before coming back to Hereford I worked hard to make sure I'm as fit as I can be.
"I want to score goals this season."
Finally Purdie was asked about the current trialists.
"I think we've got the basis of a good eleven but I think Beads will pick up a few more over pre-season that may be don't quite make it at a higher level. However step five has a bit of a stigma about it, it's a bit like dropping into the Conference about playing in League One or Two.
"So hopefully players that don't quite make it at step three or four maybe even at two might look and think Hereford had a good pre-season, hopefully over 3,000 through the gate against FC United and they might think I'll go down there.
"The one thing you get with the local trialists that haven't had a chance with Hereford in the past is that they want it.
"Look at Sam Pearson in the first half, he wants to play for Hereford. He was in the terraces ten years ago cheering us on. He'll run through a brick wall which the fans will love. He's a Hereford lad.
"The local football in Hereford has never really been tapped into, it's always been deemed not quite good enough for the standard of Hereford United.
"Now at step five there might be a few, and they've got that passion."