THERE'S been an interesting reaction from supporters to the transfer of Paul Parry with everyone wishing him success.

For my part, I certainly wish him well as almost every club had a look at him before deciding he wasn't good enough.

In this world of multi-million pound transfers, not an awful lot of players go straight from the Conference into a First Division club's first team and Cardiff themselves didn't seem anxious to get the deal done until they started pushing on Thursday night.

It sounds as if Paul had a good debut which is a credit to him as he would have had little opportunity to get to know the players around him. The other side, of course, is that he would have had little time to get nervous, either.

We're aware of the rivalry that exists between Hereford United and Cardiff City, although we haven't played each other for some years. But we'll be hoping that Paul plays a big part in their success over the next couple of years.

He's gone there representing the Conference, not just himself and Hereford. The Second and Third Division has almost turned its back on Conference players and I can't understand that. I'm convinced there are players in this league good enough to play at a far higher level but clubs seem to believe they need a foreign player to get themselves noticed.

For us, the hard part of the season is beginning now and training has to be geared to keeping the players fresh. We're fit enough as a squad of players but the training is now about quality not quantity, for example, we don't want the players slopping about on muddy ground for too long.

Through our fitness coach Tony Ford we're working on a different form of weight training to increase power. The players do that as a group once a week and others are having two or three additional sessions.

I'm also not averse to the odd session on Astroturf which is good for sharpening up touch.

We also take additional care over warm-ups and warm-downs to try to ensure that players don't suffer soft tissue injuries.

Now that Paul has gone we must look to strengthen our squad with the right sort of player.

But those that remain have been shown that we won't stand in their way if the right offer comes along. I like to think, though, that we can all progress collectively back into the league and that remains my aim.