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Wednesday, February 06, 2019

'Extremely Passionate' Richards Said Hereford Lost Their Way First Half


Hereford Head Coach Marc Richards said he doesn't show his passion for winning games on the touchline as it could affect players' decision making.

After Tuesday's 2-1 win at York, Richards said that it's important that he has the 'coolest head'.

Richards made the decision at half time to revert to a 4-4-2 formation, replacing defender Harvey Smith with debutant James Waite, who scored the winning goal.

Richards said: "I don't always show it, but I am extremely passionate about winning football matches and being as successful as we possibly can be.

"I might not be showing it externally, trust me it's in there. If I'm ranting and raving on the touchline, how do you think that's affecting the players?

"If I'm ranting and raving I'm probably putting them under more pressure when they've got to make some serious decisions within a short space of time.

"Sometimes me getting irate on the sidelines isn't going to be helpful to the players on the pitch. It's important that I've hopefully got the coolest head when it comes to making decisions, like the ones we've had to make at time.

"Throughout the games making substitutions and trying to get it right as much as we possibly can tactically so it's going to improve performance on the pitch."

Richards said that he knew that things needed to be changed at half time after York were the better team by a 'county mile'.

The Bulls then put in a much-improved performance second half at a wet Bootham Crescent as James Waite threatened on a number of occasions before he netted in the 80th minute.

"York were the better team in the first half by a country mile and we needed to change things," Richards added.

"I made a tactical change and then the lads have been excellent second half and done exactly what we've asked them to do.

"I'm really pleased, we've had to weather some storms here tonight in terms of not just from weather perspective but at times when York were really pinning us in.

"We've had to defend our box superbly well tonight and apart from a disappointing first goal we've defended our box really well at times.

"It's given us a chance to stay in the game and then a free kick from Danny Greenslade, he seems to be popping up with a few goals at the minute. Then young James Waite, an excellent, cool finish three or four minutes after that."

Richard thought the Bulls lost their way after the first five minutes of the game, but is thankful that overall things are starting to settle down after the changes made to the side.

"I think the first five minutes we were okay, but all of sudden we lost our way," Richards said. 

"We were so on the back foot which is not how we were on Saturday against Curzon, playing a similar way. We needed to change it and it was a tough decision, but we made that call and lucky it's paid off. 

"It's been difficult, there's no two ways about it. It's been really difficult in transition with the players we've had to bring in, and there's been quite a lot of turnover with that.

"It is slowly settling down but I have to say a massive thank you to the away fans, I thought they were absolutely superb  It's absolutely chucking it down here and you could hear them all through the game and the lads showed their appreciated at the end.

"We really appreciate them traveling all this way and supporting us."