STRIKER Mike Symons described FC United of Manchester's injury time equaliser as 'gut-wrenching' after their relegation rivals denied them three points with a deflected free-kick.

Symons was sharpest onto a bouncing ball to score a 17th minute equaliser after the travelling Bulls had gone behind six minutes earlier.

Despite Eliot Richards rifling Hereford into a second half lead Symons' side were denied the points by an injury time deflected free-kick.

“It was one of the most frustrating afternoons and it's happened quite a bit recently with silly goals,” said Symons. “You don't mind if they score an absolute worldie to get back into the game but it's a deflected goal that kills it

"I thought the boys defended so well in the second half and it’s just gut-wrenching to be fair and kills your weekend as a player.

"El (Elliot Richards) has pulled off an unbelievable shot to be fair and that's when we need to be a little bit braver as we sat off them a bit and on the pitch we need to show a little bit more responsibility there and keep doing what we are doing as it was working.

"They're obviously going to cheat a bit more because they've got nothing to lose, they kept more players forward and it was difficult to press them high as they were cheating in wide areas and throwing bodies up there.

"That sucker punch at the end to concede like that was gutting."

After Hereford soaked up the pressure in the second half at 2-1 ahead Symons almost forced a winner after winning the ball out wide and squaring to Theo Wharton, whose effort from inside the box was blocked.

"I managed to bring it down and run the centre-half, it was too tight to shoot myself so I just saw Theo (Wharton) pull off so I squared it back to him," added Symons.

"It was a good block by their player but if that goes in it's game over. They kick it up the other end and get a free-kick and score. That's the fine margins in football and that deflect goal really does hurt."

With relegation rivals Ashton United and Guiseley both losing the draw leaves Hereford six points above the bottom three with a game in hand.

The Bulls host 16th place Darlington and Saturday before hosting top-four side Brackley Town on Tuesday night.

"If you look at our performances over the last 10 to 15 games we play some good stuff, creating opportunities and scoring goals," added Symons. "We could be more ruthless at times.

"Over the last five or six games and some of the points and we could have had an extra two points here we would be looking at another six to eight points and that puts you up higher in the table.

"From having one chance to win the game and them going forwards and getting a free-kick. It is very fine margins and it is a learning curve for the boys.

"There's no reason why we can't push on now and go mid-table or higher. In the next two games there's no reason why we can't get six points."