AS he prepares to re-start his career in the Football League with Cheltenham Town, former Hereford United striker Steve Guinan has been reflecting on the successful two years at Edgar Street which brought offers for his services flooding in.

Under the guidance of Bulls boss Graham Turner and coach Richard O'Kelly, Guinan successfully reinvented himself to become one of the Nationwide Conference's most feared goal scorers.

His return of 43 goals for United in just 79 starts ranks him up with the best in the Bulls' recent history and Guinan himself acknowledges that the 2003-4 campaign was an exceptional one for him.

"Last season was certainly my best in football," he said. "I've never scored 29 goals in a season before.

"It's just unfortunate that the football we played didn't bring the club promotion.

"I had two great years at Hereford. I made a lot of friends there and I have the highest respect for Graham Turner and Richard O'Kelly."

He added: "It was a big wrench to leave and I think it was an emotional time for both of us when I told Graham that I would not be signing a new contract. It's the first time a manager has really put his belief in me and if we had gained promotion I would not have thought twice about staying."

But, with United missing promotion, despite winning more games than champions Chester City and finishing 17 points clear of Shrewsbury Town who won the play-offs, it was clear that at the age of 28 Guinan had to seize one last chance of establishing himself as a Football League striker.

After beginning his career with Nottingham Forest, Guinan had plied his trade around a number of clubs - either on loan or on short stays - without becoming a regular first-choice performer.

Spells at Forest, Darlington, Burnley, Crewe, Halifax, Plymouth, Scunthorpe, Cambridge United and Shrewsbury brought 14 goals in just 86 league appearances over a period of almost 10 years before he was released from Gay Meadow at the end of the 2001-2 season.

"I hoped that a Football League club would take a chance on me when I was released from Shrewsbury," he admitted. "But my aim was always to get back into the league. It's a short career in football."

And that opportunity has now arrived.

"I had quite a few offers with a couple of interesting ones from London clubs," said Guinan. "But the cost of living down there and the need to up-root put me off that idea.

"My best friend, John Finnigan, is captain at Cheltenham - we were at Nottingham Forest together and I was best man at his wedding - and he had been telling me lots of good things about the club.

"Then I had a chat with John Ward, the manager, and I came away sold."

Guinan is also studying for a degree at the University of Gloucestershire, which is based at Cheltenham, and this also had an impact on his decision.

But what of the team and the competition he has left behind?

"When I first came down to the Conference I really didn't know what to expect as I hadn't seen any Conference football live or on the television," he said. "It took me about 10 games to adjust to the pace and to the style of play.

"But last season the standard improved again and now the top Conference sides are on a par with the Third Division.

"I'm sure that if we had gone up we would have done well with the type of football we played. You only have to look at Yeovil and Doncaster and how well they have done to see what we might have achieved."

But it's Shrewsbury and not Hereford who will be going up after success in the play-offs and the manner in which the Bulls missed out in the semi-final with Aldershot still rankles with Cheltenham's new acquisition.

"I still think about it a lot and for the first 48 hours afterwards I thought of little else," he said. "If we had been beaten by two or three goals, or if Aldershot had been a better team than us, then we could have accepted it.

"No-one bar the referee saw the incident involving Andy Tretton as a sending-off offence but we still held them with 10 men for 100 minutes - it's heartbreaking."

And despite his own departure and that of Michael Rose to Yeovil, Guinan still believes that the Bulls can mount another promotion challenge for next season.

"Hereford have still got the nucleus of the squad together and Graham Turner and Richard O'Kelly have watched an awful lot of football during the season so they will know the sort of players they want to bring in.

"I think they just need two or three more good players to replace the ones that are leaving.

"I hope that they can do it again for the sake of all the players and the coaching and office staff. They really deserve it."