HEREFORD United non-executive director Colin Addison said that the Bulls struggled in their FA Cup second round replay Aginst Cheltenham after leading-marksman Ryan Bowman went off injured.

Bowman, who has scored 11 goals for Martin Foyle’s team this season, had to be withdrawn after only 15 minutes of Tuesday night's game after tearing his medial ligaments.

“He has been playing so well and took his goal at Barrow so well on Friday night.

“That was a massive blow to us and were under the cosh from thereon in and end of the day it showed.

“He has been playing so well and will be a prolific goalscorer.”

Addison, who was player-manager of the “Giantkillers” team that beat Newcastle in the FA Cup 40 years ago, said that the Hereford players would not have thought about the huge financial reward and the chance to play Premier League giants Everton in the next round going into Tuesday’s game.

“The players were aware of that, but they wouldn’t have been thinking about finance or Everton,” he said.

“But you can’t take anything away from them - they worked very hard and showed great endeavour.

“It was a good cup tie, very competitive and was end-to-end with a lot of incidents.

“But that is how cup football is usually played, especially at our level.

“We just came up a little bit short.”