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Next Game: Pre-Season

Thursday, February 07, 2019

A Physical Presence Of A Striker Isn't Essential For Richards


Head Coach Marc Richards said that Hereford played a different way without the physical presence of Mike Symons up front at York City last night, and that isn't essential.

He praised James Waite who scored after coming on in place of Harvey Smith at half time as the Bulls reverted to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation.

Richards said it's nice to have two types of strikers and it's not essential to have the physical presence of a striker.

"We're looking for not just strikers, but any players that could potentially add to our strength and depth of squad," Richards said after last night's 2-1 win.

"Whether that's a physical presence of a striker or whether that's someone like James Waite for example who is probably the smallest lad on the pitch but he's come on tonight and scored the winning goal.

"It will depend on what's available and what we can attract to the club."

Mike Symons didn't make the trip to York as he was suffering with a hamstring strain. Richards hopes he'll be back for Saturday, but the Bulls were effective without him.

Richards added: "You look at it tonight, we haven't had Symo. We've played a slightly different way and it's been effective."

"It depends how you play, if we are going to go direct then you would suggest you need a direct physical presence up there but it's not essential. It's nice to have both.

"Symo's been superb, but we've not heed away from the fact of somebody who could give him a little bit of competition as well. It's always nice whatever position on the pitch you've got competition. We're getting there across the board."

James Waite was brought on to change the game during the second half, with Ryan Green watching him before Christmas.

Richards said: "Credit to the scouting network that Tim has put into place and for Ryan Green for watching James a couple of times, saying he'd be good enough if not a lot better than this level.

"He's come in tonight, obviously put him on at half time and he's shown a real maturity about his game.

"But you also saw his low centre of gravity, they way he moves with the ball. He's strong even though he's not physically very big. He was not afraid to get his shots away, the keeper has pulled off a really good save for potentially a second for him."