Despite only picking up one point in the last four games, Pete Beadle his Hereford side have been 'fairly competitive' until Saturday's 2-0 loss at FA Trophy holders Brackley Town.
Boss Beadle says Hereford have come up against tough sides, three who were in the play-offs last year and York who are spending the most money in the league.
"If you go back to our last four games, we've played Chorley who've been in the play-offs the last four years," Beadle said.
"We've played Bradford who got in the play-offs last year, and we didn't play particularly well in that game but we were one goal away, Eliot's [Richards] chance, from getting something out of it.
"We've played York who are full-time and probably spending the most amount of money in this division.
"And we've played the team who got in the play-off final and won the trophy last year. Our last four games we're never going to be easy."
It's early in the season though, Hereford lie 12th with 11 points and have a game in hand over most the other sides in the league. Should they win that then they could occupy the final play-off spot.
"It's very, very early in the season. We've been fairly competitive in all of our games up until today, but again, circumstances and the way the game played out it wasn't going to be our day today.
"There's no issues with of the way it's been, yes it's disappointing that we haven't put more points on the board in the last four games, but none of them were easy either.
"None of them were gimmies, we've just got to make sure we keep on working hard. There's no secret remedy to it you've just got to work hard. These players are the same players that everyone has been singing their praises.
"At the end of the day we haven't done anything different in our build up or preparation to today, the players haven't done anything different in their build up or preparation to today.
"Obviously the big moments in the game didn't go our way which cost us today."
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| Fans have been calling for Jamie Bird to start |
Meanwhile Jamie Bird was handed his first start of the season which he earned, but he didn't set the world on fire.
He was then substituted at half time, along with Jennison Myrie-Williams in light of Eliot Richards' sending off.
"Probably always difficult when you come on for 15 minutes and shine in 15 minutes," Beadle said.
"As I've said before Jamie is a precocious young talent, he's going to be a very good footballer.
"Today he got a start because he's earned it, and obviously he didn't set the world alight in the first half but none of them did.
"He was no different to any of the others today, the difficulty for him was when we changed the system a bit and put the two up top we had to sacrifice a couple of bodies and we just felt with Jennison and Jamie, we'd do it with those two rather than everybody else because we wanted to keep people playing in the same position as they had been."