HEREFORD'S Head of Football Tim Harris said that the club must move on from the reign of Marc Richards and not reflect on the past.

The Bulls started life without former Head Coach Richards with a 1-0 victory over AFC Telford United under the leadership of Harris.

Harris says he will sit down with the directors to ‘take stock’ of the situation but he didn’t want the recruitment process for a new Head Coach to ‘drag on’ and wants to be positive about the future.

“The decision has been made and we can’t change that,” said Harris.

“Obviously I’ve worked with Marc (Richards) over the years and he is a first-class coach and I’m sure that he will bounce back.

“He is a great lad, there isn’t one player in that dressing room who doesn’t like Marc Richards. But sadly it hasn’t worked out and we have to move on.

When asked if the management structure will remain the same, Harris added: “I need to sit down with the directors as a lot has happened in the last 24 to 48 hours.

“The important focus was today’s game and what gets discussed after that will get discussed. That’s something that we’ve really not had a conversation about at this present moment in time.

When asked if he will have a role in the recruitment process, Harris added: “I think we need to make it absolutely clear. I was brought in as Head of Football and asked to find some young coaches that have had experience at the National North level.

“Marc was one of four people who were interviewed by the board. Two of the others I also knew as well.

“We need to sit down and take stock. One thing I will tell you is that we can’t let it drag on, it has to be sorted as quickly as it can.

“But at the same time we don’t want to make any mistakes. I need to have that time to discuss with the board exactly what their thoughts are and where they are going.

“In the meantime it’s important that we put in performances like tonight and pick up points. When you look at the league there are absolutely no guarantees.

“When (Alex) Ferguson left Man United they had a trail of managers and still haven’t quite got it right. They are the top in the Premiership. There are no guarantees in this game.

“You have only got to look at the likes of Stockport County who spent eight years in the National League North. You have to keep your feet on the ground and it isn’t going to be easy.

“It’s a tough old league but if we put in performances like that today the fans will go home happy and we will move forwards as a football club.

“It’s happened and we have to deal with the circumstances we find ourselves in today end of story. We have to move on and can’t worry about what happened in the past.

“We have to be positive about the future and performances like that tonight was positive. The players put in a hell of a shift.

“What has gone on the past has happened and we can’t dig up dirt on what went wrong or what should have gone right.

“It’s happened, move on.”

Harris was delighted with the response his players gave during Tuesday night’s victory over Telford and sad that senior players Josh Gowling, Jarrod Hodgkiss and Martin Riley had been big influences in the changing room.

Harris was joined by injured Riley in the dug-out for the match.

“It’s always difficult because you never know how the players are going to respond but I’m delighted with the performance and thought they put a real shift in,” added Harris.

“It was a great effort. I think we deserved the three points today and there was some really good performances.

“When you’re in a situation like what has happened over the last couple of days they have to look at themselves and ask themselves what do they want out of the game?

“This is a big club with a great fanbase which is very demanding and everybody saw today there was a lot of passion and committed performances.

“I must mention Josh Gowling, Jarrod Hodgkiss and Martin Riley because they have been superb, they are experienced lads who know what football is about and have been through situations like this before.

“They have really helped to gel the lads and make them get their focus on the job today. You can never tell whether that is going to happen or not until they get out on the pitch.”

When asked if the Bulls will play with three forwards in future, Harris added: That’s what the crowd want to see so if that’s the way that it gets us results then we will do whatever is necessary.

“It’s a big club with the demands of the fans but we have to be realistic as we are where we are and we need to steadily grow the squad that we’ve put together.”

Despite the victory Harris said that there was still room for improvement as the visitors almost caught Hereford out on occasions.

Harris added: “There were a couple of little things that worried me towards the end of the game. I said to them about the chance they had at the death and the corner where the goalkeeper has boomed it forwards and we could have been caught out.

“It was a great team performance and the save from Brandon Hall has earned us all three point, everyone has done their job today.

“We can’t get carried away. The important thing at this present moment in time is that we pick up results and the rest will take care of itself.

“We have seen in the last few games that things haven’t really worked with three at the back and knowing what Telford are about we thought we could exploit them with three up front.

“If I’m disappointed I would have liked to score another goal but we’re not going to complain under the current circumstances.”