Hereford midfielder Jamie Pitman will be going all out to banish the memory of what he describes as 'one of the worst days in my life' over the next three weeks.

Pitman was part of the Bulls squad which lost their Football League status in the dramatic last-day shoot-out with Brighton seven years ago, but now his sights are firmly focused on winning that spot back through the play-offs.

"It would be really nice to be part of the side which goes back into the league because for the players who were here at the time it was hard to take," said the 28-year-old. "You don't get many chances to achieve something in football so we really want to do that this time."

Twelve months before that awful day against Brighton, things had seemed very much on the up at Edgar Street as the Bulls had progressed to the Division 3 play-offs before going out to Darlington at the semi-final stage.

Pitman, as a youthful member of that squad, too, is, along with the recently-returned on-loan goalkeeper Chris MacKenzie, perfectly placed to comment on the relative merits of that and the current squads.

"This side is a lot younger and much more athletic," he said. "We had a lot of experienced players at that time but now we have players who are athletes, probably technically better than we were then, but just lacking the experience.

"I don't think that will count for much, though. We just enjoy playing and we know what we want to achieve. We're on a big stage and we all want the same things."

Pitman is full of praise for the way the coaching staff has organised the side despite the financial constraints the club has been under.

"We know that the club hasn't got a great deal of money but everything we can do that is professional we try to do to the best of our ability," he said. "We play totally free-flowing football, Richard O'Kelly encourages us to play football and so does the gaffer, Graham Turner."

There is a tinge of disappointment, however, that the squad's fine displays have not been rewarded with the division's top prize.

"If someone had said at the start of the season that we would score 103 goals and finish on 91 points then we would have taken it in the belief that we would have won the league," he said. "But you have to respect Chester for what they have done. They don't concede goals and if you don't do that then you're always in with a chance of winning something."

Pitman combines his playing career with studies at Salford University where he is working towards a degree in Chartered Physiotherapy. But if he is officially classed as a part-timer, then his commitment and effort certainly come into the 'full-time' category.

"I'm enjoying my studies but I also love my football and I'm fortunate that I'm able to do both," he said.

Life off the field has also changed for Pitman during the last 12 months with marriage to Kate, a Hereford police officer.

"I'm not football mad when I'm at home," he said. "I'm not a big fan of watching games on the television. It's nice to get away from it sometimes and Kate helps me do that. She keeps my feet on the ground."

For the next three weeks, however, football will be firmly in focus.

"In the plays-off last time I was young and didn't feel the pressure that much. I just enjoyed playing," he said. "Now, being a little bit older and wiser, I tend to think about it a little bit more and see what's at stake.

"We are the favourites and rightly so because we are the second-best side in the league. That puts the pressure on us but we've just got to realise that nobody will want to play us and that's a big thing."