HEREFORD United’s already-depressing season reached a new low with their home defeat by Colchester.

The Bulls, whose relegation was mathematically confirmed by this reverse, have now lost 28 times during the campaign, more than they have lost during any season in their 85-year history.

Scoring goals – with the notable exception of Steve Guinan – has been a problem throughout the season and that was never better exemplified than against Colchester when the Bulls failed to muster a single serious on-target effort during the 90 minutes.

Meanwhile at the other end, there have been far too many costly mistakes and there were two more on Saturday.

Sam Gwynne’s careless foul on Akanni-Sunday Wasiu on the corner of the penalty area exposed United to danger in the 36th minute.

And Mark Yeates punished them to the full with a curling free-kick which beat the defensive wall and found goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi out of position.

“We concede some stupid goals and you just cannot afford to give away free-kicks in that sort of position, particularly with the sort of players we are playing against,” said boss Graham Turner.

“We did it against Leicester and the lad scored a good goal and it happened again today. It is a dangerous area to be a bit rash in your tackling and competing for the ball and that is where you have to be disciplined.”

Colchester’s second goal three minutes before the break was another example of luck going against Hereford.

Yeates swung in a shot from the right and Dean Beckwith rose above everyone and got a touch which could have gone anywhere but flew past the helpless Gulacsi and into the corner of the net.

Hereford fans at least got a glimpse of what may be the future with a second-half substitute appearance by Craig Jones.

The 19-year-old has waited patiently for his chance, being named on the bench without making the pitch several times over the last two seasons, and showed some promising touches in his 18 minutes on the field.

“I’ve waited a year-and-a-half for my debut so it was nice to get those minutes on the field at the end,” said the teenager.

“It has been a hard season for the team and disappointing but hopefully we can bounce back next season.

“The goals today seemed to come out of nothing after we had been on top for the first 25 minutes.

“But it changed the game when they scored and that has been the same all season.

“Now I have had a few minutes on the pitch, I hope I can get a few more and push on for the rest of the season and look for a new contract for next season.”