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| Andrai Jones Watches As Former Hereford Keeper Dan Hanford Clears. |
Josh Gowling spoke to the Hereford media after last night's game at Southport which ended goal-less.
The Hereford manager felt his squad was 'solid and organised' but admitted 'we broke down a bit in the final third'. However he was pleased with his defence.
Gowling was without either of his two strikers and so recent signing Andrai Jones led the line.
"They put a bit of pressure on us especially towards the end of the game which is going to happen when you are playing away from home and Southport is never an easy place to come.
"I thought we were the stronger of the teams.
"I think if you look at us from this year to last year when we came here we are a different animal now.
"We broke down a bit in the final third, it's not neccessarily the personel, I think it's getting a bit more comfortable.
"We spoke before the game about being adaptive, adapting to the players you've got and in spells I think we did that.
"We got the balls into Andrai's feet, probably didn't do it enough. He's great in the air and we wanted someone in the middle there just to cause a bit of a problem so Finn and Owen Evans could roll in and pick up the second balls. For large parts of the game we did that so I was pleased.
"And I was pleased with Andrai's attitude, his application, he worked all the game. It's his first ninety minutes in a while. He was pleasing."
Finn and Owen Evans both had long distance efforts.
"Finn needs to get more goals and I've told him that. You can see him now rolling into areas and picking the ball up and being a bit more direct. Toe is Toey, he'll get on the ball and drive forward, get into areas and try and score. He's probably not being as consistant tonight but I think that was a bit of frustration as we played a bit more on Finn's side than his side. But they are a massive threat."
It was good to start the season with a clean sheet
"I think I was playing last time we had a clean sheet!
"We've recruited bottom up to make sure that we got our defence sorted and then work our way up and with the experienced lads we've brought in - it's not just the back four I think the biggest thing for us is the midfield and they work hard, they are tough and resiliant and they are looking to pick up all the scraps.
"Jake and Grimes were solid and they pumped a lot of balls into the box towards the end of the game, a lot of corners, they stood strong and won their battles."
Are you still looking for a striker?
"Yes we are.
"Obviously Lenny is out and Demi is out so we don't have a natural striker and we need that focal point. We are looking at a few options, hopefully we can get something over the line pretty soon.
"Lenny it won't be too long but Demi - if you were at the Chippenham game the goalie landed on hm and his knee went in an unnatural position so we're not sure with Demi at the moment but we are hoping Lenny will be back pretty soon."
When Gowling was interviewed no one was aware next Saturday's game would be called off.
"It's big pitch for us and we want to play a bit more expansive football at home. We've got to have two styles of play, we've got to have a plan B and I think tonight we showed that we can mix it up with physical teams.
"They were really physical last year and I don't think we stood up to it whereas if we look at the squad now we can stand up to that easily and then get them at home and play a bit more football."
Next will now be the FA Cup tie away at Stratford.
"One of Burr's old teams.
"He said 'I knew it, I knew it'
"It will be a difficult tie. It's the FA Cup anything can happen.
"You play against a team that's bottom of the league three leagues below you and when you play them they raise their game so we've got to be on our games and put application in.
"If we perform like we did tonight, solid, organised then we'll win the game but we'll have to give 100% to make sure we can do that."
Finally goalkeeper Brandon Hall was named on the bench. It had been thought he had left Hereford.
"Yes Brandon is back with us now, he trained Thursday."