Hereford FC youngsters told ‘they’ve got to do better’

He was speaking after watching Hereford FC exit the Herefordshire FA County Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage following a 3-2 defeat to Hereford Lads Club.

The side comprised of the under-18s along with dual registration youngsters Liam Bishop and Connor Davies-Austin and first team squad players Kieran Thomas, Ben Pollock, Rhys Davies, Bradley Ash and Kyle Finn.

The Bulls had led 2-0 inside the opening seven minutes before the hosts pulled them back as Tom Bendall’s brace and Oliver Price found the net for Lads Club.

“It was obviously a youthful squad and we had a few players coming back from injury so we wanted to give them some minutes,” said Gowling.

“Obviously we went two goals up and then we didn’t continue to press and work like we did do for the first 20 to 30 minutes, that was disappointing.

“It’s difficult especially for the young lads because that’s men’s football and they’ve not had a lot of that and so obviously they struggled with the physicality of the game.

“It was a youthful side but we want to win every game. I’ve had a chat with the young lads in there and said if they want to be up to the standard of this football club then they’ve got to do better than that.

“Especially as a young lad the way modern day football is now a lot of the young lads don’t get chance to play men’s football so they’re not used to it.

“A game like today where the under-18s haven’t played a lot of men’s football that’s the standard and physicality they’re going to face.

“I don’t think we stood up to that today. It’s a learning curve and we spoke in there and said there was a lot of great positives to come from that and they’ll be stronger for it.

“Winning is a mentality especially for young lads.

“Getting the opportunity to play against men and to go another couple of rounds would have been really good for the kids but it is what it is.

“As a club we will look at that and look at youth players all the time, so it’s a learning curve for us as well.”

Pollock could return to the first team against Altrincham on Saturday after serving his suspension and Gowling said that he along with the other four senior players needed time on the pitch.

The rest of the Bulls squad were in training with Steve Burr.

“They needed minutes,” added Gowling.

“Ben (Pollock) has been out for a while, Kieran (Thomas) has just come back from a hamstring and (Kyle) Finn has had a head injury.

“Rhys (Davies) played as well and we needed those guys to play 90 minutes. We decided or not whether we were going to play younger players and have them training but I felt they needed minutes under their belts and they needed that tonight.

“We had a couple of good chances to be fair and Ben (Pollock) has had one where he’s hit it wide. We’ve had a few good chances and they know they’ve got to do better. When we get into those positions we’ve got to start hitting the target.”

Gowling was left questioning a referee decision in the final minutes of the game when a penalty appeal for a handball was waved away by the referee.

“I tried to speak to him but the referee didn’t want to speak to me,” added Gowling.

“It looks handball to me, his hands are over his head weren’t they. To be honest it’s not good enough to be relying on the referee for a decision at the end of a game to make a game level.

“A lot of positives, things we’ve got to learn and we’ll move on from it. We’d have taken extra-time to be fair, especially for the younger lads it would have been a new experience for them so it would have been good to learn from that.

“But it wasn’t to be.”