HEREFORD boss Martin Foyle (pictured below) is not being fooled by the lowly positions of United’s next two opponents.

The Bulls entertain Barrow on Saturday before travelling north to take on Gateshead at Hartlepool next Tuesday.

“A friend of mine watched Barrow at Forest Green on Saturday when they drew but should have won,” he said.

“It goes to show that you just cannot take anything for granted in this division.

“Gateshead will be a different proposition altogether.

“They turned over Kidderminster last week and they are in a false position in the table. They have had such problems all year with their pitch.”

Gateshead, who are 17th in the table despite three wins from their last four games, have experienced massive difficulties with their home ground.

They have been unable to play a match at their International Stadium base this year and, as well as at Hartlepool, they have staged games at York City and Carlisle United.

This has not helped their financial position and Barrow have found themselves similarly cash-strapped.

The same could not be said of last Saturday’s opponents Luton Town.

“John Still, who has taken over as manager there, had 15 unused players sitting in the stand,” said Foyle.

“That did make me rather jealous.

“But we played very well down there, especially in the first-half.

“We should have been 2-0 ahead at the interval but Luton Town are a very good side and I’m surprised at where they are in the table.”

Foyle has some injury and illness problems to contend with before naming his side for Saturday’s match with Barrow, who are 20th in the table but have wins over well-placed Newport County and Luton in their last 10 games.

“Michael Townsend and Simon Clist are still injured,” said Foyle. “And Ryan Bowman and James Musa have been ill - there has been a bit of illness around the camp.

“But it’s been nice to have a midweek without a game this week, our last chance of the season.”

Foyle was hoping to run the rule over Westfields’ goalscoring midfielder Craig Jones today (Thursday) assuming that he came through the Midland Alliance club’s midweek match unscathed. “We’re also interested in having a look at their left-back, Joel Edwards, but he’s injured.

“We have no scouts so Andy Porter and I are covering a lot of miles looking at games - I went to one on Monday, one on Tuesday, another on Wednesday and then one on Friday - because we’re still not sure where we will be shopping for next season.”

And he admitted that the size of his squad has caused frustrations.

“In the last two games, I wanted to throw on another front man in the second-half but we just did not have one available. With another striker to bring on, I’m sure that we would have won both of those matches.”

l LONG-serving John Layton has left his position as Hereford United's Head of Youth.

Layton, who played more than 200 games for the Bulls and was first-team manager in 1994-5, was appointed to the post in 2011.

Bulls manager Martin Foyle said that the decision had been made as a result of a restructuring of the youth set-up and for financial reasons.

Community Trust manager Jamie Edwards and Youth assistant Dan Connor will head the youth department for the remainder of the season.

But a new director youth is to be appointed who will also be involved with scouting and player recruitment at Edgar Street.