Agoalless draw at home to Gillingham failed to dampen the spirits of Hereford United’s new boss Simon Davey, who says he is happy with four league points from a possible six.
An entertaining match with the Gills at Edgar Street was characterised by a number of chances for both teams, although in the end both were forced to settle for a single point.
A minute of applause in memory of former Bulls player Adam Stansfield, who passed away last week at the age of 31, was a fitting tribute and appreciated by a handful of supporters from his current club Exeter City who had made the journey to Edgar Street.
Lively former Bulls loanee Chris Palmer forced an excellent reaction save from Bulls keeper Adam Bartlett, who was again called into action to deny Danny Spiller’s long range effort.
Bartlett was beaten all ends up when Palmer’s deflected free kick flew goalwards, but unfortunately for the visitors the post intervened and it remained scoreless at the break.
The Bulls could have taken the lead after the interval but Gills keeper Alan Julian was on hand to block Joe Colbeck’s angled effort.
The visitors could have nicked it with only moments remaining but Bartlett was equal to a powerful shot from Spiller to ensure the Bulls kept the point.
Speaking after the match, Davey said he was happy with the clean sheet. He told the club website: “It looks on paper, when it’s a 0-0 draw, that there was no excitement, but there were chances at both ends.
“We would have preferred more goals going in today but you can’t grumble, we’ve played two games and got four points in the division. We’ve had two clean sheets so we must be doing something right.
“It’s not a bad start when you look at it on paper with the fixtures that we have in the first month. So far we’ve come away with four points out of the six.
“We would have preferred to have maybe had a draw away and a win at home but that’s the way football goes.”
“We could have passed the ball a bit better.
“We had times in the game when we had time on the ball and we moved the ball too quickly, but that’s what happens when you bring a lot of players in early on in the season.
“Four points out of six when we are still gelling, I must be pleased with that,” he added.
The Bulls will certainly need to be prepared when they face Chesterfield on Saturday. The Spireites are heavily tipped to gain promotion after narrowly missing out on the play-offs last season.