HEREFORD United coach Richard O'Kelly is confident the Bulls can keep their Nationwide Conference play-off hopes alive.

The Edgar Street club are away to Barnet today but with four of their last seven games at home O'Kelly remains optimistic about their chances.

"The players have showed a willingness to put things right on the training ground," he said. "We all had a long chat after the Scarborough game and, just like the rest of the season, I cannot fault their attitude and commitment to the club.

"We are remaining positive about things. The top clubs will be playing against each other in the run-in and dropping points in the process. So we need to keep winning, taking advantage of when they slip up.

"We know we have to win as many matches as possible between now and the end of the season, and we will be taking each match as it comes."

Meanwhile 12 of the 22 Conference chairmen agreed to expand the league to include twenty-four sides from next season.

A report on Confguid.com said: "The Con-ference Chairmen's meeting voted narrowly for an increase to 24 clubs for the Conf-erence next season. "The proposal was put forward by the chairman of a certain club currently battling against relegation. He claimed that it was a proposal from the Conference Management Committee, but at least one other chairman on that committee said he knew nothing about the proposal until the meeting. "It is likely that one club would now be relegated, instead of five being promoted from the feeder leagues, leaving Kettering Town as the likely relegation candidates. "However, if one of the feeder league champions does not have the necessary ground grading, most likely to be Accrington Stanley, then they will not be promoted and Kettering would be saved."