We Had Character Today Said Gowling

Orrin Pendley

Coming after two defeats a draw at Alfreton for Hereford this afternoon was something of a relief.

Manager Josh Gowling was clearly pleased with a point.

"Character is what I would say today," said Gowling.

"A lot of teams have come unstuck here.

"And for me the way they play, they put balls in the box, long throws, any opportunity they get to put it in they put it in.

"They've got Matt Rhead who has been around a long time and he's a threat.

"To a man today I was really pleased, we picked up second balls well, won a lot of first contacts.

"To come off the back of two 3-1 losses, come here which is a tough place, coming off the back of the losses not doing the fundamentals right. 

"To come to a place like this you need to do the fundamentals right and we did that today."

Hereford went a goal down after eight minutes.

"We spoke before we came out about securing the edge of the box and I think Ryan was sucked in on the edge and they end up scoring from it.

"Credit to the lads, they stuck to their tasks, didn't get their heads down, gone with it.

"Then Ryan scored and then he had another great opportunity in the first half."

Gowling made five changes to the starting eleven.

"We looked at the middle of the park, we've lost too many battles in there. Just bringing Luke in there just gives us a bit more solidity in there, just a bit more solid.

"And for a game like this today we thought Orrin would be perfect against someone like Matt Rhead, he likes the rough and tough, he likes the physical battle and he did that perfectly. Really pleased with him."