HEREFORD captain Josh Gowling said that losing individual battles resulted in his side’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of Chester.

It was Hereford’s second defeat this season and also the second time that the Bulls have conceded three or more goals in a match away from home, following their 3-1 loss at King’s Lynn Town.

“When you come here you expect a battle and we didn’t rise to the occasion, so it was very disappointing,” said Gowling.

“If we are going to be frank about it we lost our battles all over the pitch, that was basically it. It doesn’t matter about game-plans or anything else, we lost our individual battles which is what cost us the game.”

Hereford faced an unbeaten Chester side who beat Gloucester City 4-0 in their last home match.

“We’ve got off to a pretty good start ourselves and were fourth before the game,” Gowling added.

“At the end of the day we have got a new squad and fit lads. I don’t care if they’re unbeaten, you don’t come here and lose 4-1, it’s not acceptable.

“We didn’t get the fundamentals right, they did the basics in transition, defended well and knew what they were doing.

“They implemented their game plan well, better than us.”

With a new manager or head coach due to appointed in the coming days Gowling says whoever the new man is the players must perform for the club and its fans.

“As a squad, we’re good and it’s going to take time as we’ve got a lot of new players,” he added.

“We want to do something this season and that’s what it’s about. So whoever comes in, that’s all we can do is to perform for the football club and the fans.

“I don’t think it matters who the manager is if you’re not going to run around and work hard then it doesn’t make any difference.

“That’s what we’ve got to get back too as that’s what got us the good start.

“We didn’t do that today. Last season we were in a relegation battle while this season we have played some decent teams and done quite well.

“The fundamentals are there, but we’ve just got to implement them better on a weekly basis. A new manager comes in and everybody runs around a lot more in training as they want that spark, but we’ve got to professionals.

“The right man will come in but until then we’ve got to be professional and put in performances.

“Today we’ve got to apologise to the fans as they’ve come a long way to see us perform and we’ve let them down.”

The Bulls welcomed Kieran Thomas, Jacob Jagger Cane and Mike Symons back to their starting side.

“Kieran (Thomas) has obviously played a season last year and is an excellent player,” Gowling added.

“(Jacob Jagger) Cane has come back in, but it was difficult because we didn’t get going, it’s as simple as that.

“It didn’t matter who was in there today, it didn’t seem like it was going to work.”

Brandon Hall made a host of good saves for the Bulls to keep the score-line down to four goals.

Gowling added: “Brandon is an excellent goalkeeper, great kicking and shot stopping, he has been excellent so far this season so we’ve got to do more defensively to make sure he doesn’t work as hard.”