LETHAL marksman John Mills says Hereford will have to have the right attitude and application in order to succeed in the Southern Premier League.

Many people believe this will be a much tougher season for the Bulls and Mills agrees.

"It's going to be a very tough league and it's not going to be like the last two seasons when we've pretty much cruised through until the end," said Mills.

"This is going to be hard from start to finish.

"There are going to be games where it's going to be very tight, but that's down to us to keep persevering.

"You're going to get bigger, stronger, fitter guys, but that's down to us to keep applying ourselves.

"The club is looking to progress as quickly as they can and the players have to be on it every week.

"Players have been coming and going, so it's all about the attitude and application that we show.

"There are four or five of us still here who were here from the start, so that shows we are doing things the right way."

Mills was back in the starting line-up for Saturday's HFA Senior Invitational Cup win over Stourbridge.

And with Lance Smith, Keyon Reffell and Garyn Preen all coming on board this season, Hereford will have a luxury of attackers to choose from.

"Because Lance has been away, he's had a couple of games and did really well, whereas I had been playing 20 to 30 minutes at the end," said Mills.

"But it was nice to get out there and have a good 70 minutes.

"It was nice to play against a side that will be at the same level as us this season.

"They [Stourbridge] gave us a real test and I thought we deserved to nick it.

"We could have scored a couple, but luckily Jimmy got on the end of one and it was a good win to finish the pre-season."