The world looks a rosier place at the moment

10:35am Thursday 4th September 2008

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A VERY difficult week ended in some sort of triumph on Saturday with us picking up our first win of the season.

Prior to our victory over Crewe Alexandra and getting our first points on the board, the league table was highly embarrassing.

We deserved the win and worked tremendously hard against a team that John Trewick and I had watched beat Bristol City the previous Tuesday in the Carling Cup. And not only beat them but Crewe thoroughly deserved to have won by maybe even more than the 2-1 margin.

We changed some of the personnel for the game. We changed the system in deciding to go for three out-and-out attackers and it was a huge relief that the whole thing worked out well.

But it took a crucial save from Darren Randolph from a free-kick late in the first half to ensure that we kept a clean sheet.

The difficulties of the week started when we had arranged for a player from a Premiership club to come in. Apart from actually putting pen to paper, everything else was taken care of. Negotiations had taken place with the club and the player’s agent and, as far as I was concerned, it was done and dusted.

With it being a Bank Holiday, things were left until the Tuesday. Again I spoke to West Brom who were up at Hartlepool, preparing for a Carling Cup tie and the answer was: “Has no-one phoned you to tell you, he’s going to a Premier League club in Scotland.”

So that was a disappointment.

Then on the Tuesday, we learned that our physio Wayne Jones was going to Yeovil and that our Football in the Community officer Adriano Girolami had worked out his term of notice.

So it meant a huge amount of phonecalls but we have secured two people coming in to post with whom I am absolutely delighted.

Jamie Pitman will come into the club as physiotherapist. He has his FA qualifications to the standard required by League 1 clubs.

After leaving the club as a player, he continued to live in Hereford and I always felt he had an affinity with the club. He was a good player for me over a period of time, always competitive and always prepared to work hard.

I am sure he will do a good job for us in treating and rehabilitating injured players.

And Jamie Edwards, another local lad who was once on the club’s books at our Centre of Exellence before going to Aston Villa, is coming in as our new Football in the Community officer. It is an area of the club that we are very keen to expand, to get into more schools, to get more holiday clubs and to diversify into youth clubs, work with the police with problem kids and to continue with girls and disabled football.

Jamie is just the man, having built up a business himself of coaching in schools, to bring the Football in the Community Scheme up to the standard we are looking for.

We are delighted to have recruited those two people and, with three points on the board and the prospect of further players coming in, the world looks a rosier place at the moment.

We will not get carried away by the result against Crewe but it should provide us with a platform to regain confidence and start to show that we have players and a team good enough to compete at this level.