IT'S hard not to feel enormous sympathy for Hereford United after their play-off heartbreak.

To miss out on the Nationwide Conference title by a single point, having won more games and scored more goals than any other side, was bad enough. But to then suffer in the lottery of a penalty shoot-out in the play-off semi-finals, having received the rough end of the stick in terms of refereeing decisions in both legs, must be very hard to take for manager Graham Turner, the players who've given their all throughout the season, and the Bulls fans who've backed them in numbers all the way.

Having worked so hard to try and regain the Football League status they lost seven years ago, Turner must now pick up his shattered troops and try and launch another bid for promotion next season, when they are sure to start as one of the favourites for the title. But with so many of his current squad

out of contract, Turner will also face a battle to hang on to some of his stars whose efforts this season will not have gone unnoticed by other clubs.

Doubtless the arguments about the unfairness of the play-offs will be raised again after Hereford were beaten by an Aldershot Town side who'd finished three places and 21 points adrift of them in the regular season. But to his credit, Turner said that they knew the score with regard to the play-offs at the start of the season -- and with full houses at both Edgar Street and the Recreation Ground for the two legs and a 20,000 crowd expected for next Sunday's final at Stoke between Shrewsbury and Aldershot -- the Conference are unlikely to ditch them now.

And for all their goalscoring prowess it was home defeats against the likes of relegated Leigh RMI, Tamworth and Burton that really cost them in the long run.