HEREFORD interim manager Josh Gowling said he was left frustrated by the manner of which they conceded goals during a 4-0 defeat at Spennymoor Town.

The Bulls were unbeaten in three matches going into the tie and kept a clean sheet at Kettering Town on Tuesday night.

However, they conceded within seven minutes through a controversial Glen Taylor penalty at Spennymoor before Tyler Forbes doubled their lead with an elegant flick inside the box.

Despite Hereford’s efforts to pull back into the tie Mark Anderson powerfully headed home a third and then Taylor ran through late in the tie to make it 4-0.

“The simple fact is three of their goals were from unmarked men in the box from crosses so I’ve let the lads know about that,” said Gowling.

“I’m really disappointed with the goals as they’re something that we’ve cut out and they’ve crept back in today and that’s frustrating.

“It’s disappointing but for me we looked a bit leggy today especially in centre midfield areas, I think we were off the pace.

“The high press that we usually do wasn’t quite there and to be fair starting from 2-0 down like we were is very difficult to come back from.

“We sat back deep and let them drop ball into the big man (Glen Taylor) who’s a good striker and if you give their full-backs time to drop ball in then they’re going to cause problems and they did that.

“The first half we didn’t really get going but in the second half we took it to them, played well and (Kyle) Finn came on early in the second half and flashed quite a few balls across the six-yard box and you’re looking for someone to tap it in.

“For people who are not here it looked like a drumming but that was far from the case.

After conceding an early penalty the Bulls felt they deserved two spot kicks themselves as both Kelsey Mooney and Brad Ash looked to have been fouled inside the box.

Hereford also felt that Ash had been fouled in the lead up to the third goal.

“You try and talk to referee and they won’t talk to you, so it’s difficult to have a conversation with them,” added Gowling.

“Even their third goal, (Brad) Ash has cut inside and the lad has just kicked him over. He didn’t give it and they scored from it.

“That’s not an excuse as we have to defend better but I tried to speak to the referee after and he didn’t want to say a lot.”