HEREFORD manager Josh Gowling felt his side should have beaten Scarborough Athletic with their first half chances.

The Bulls were beaten in north Yorkshire 1-0 after Luke Haines headed a long throw-in into his own net amongst a host of bodies in the second half.

However, Gowling reflected on first half chances for Harry Pinchard, Jared Hodgkiss and Kane Thompson-Sommers which went begging as the half ended goalless.

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“The game should have been done at half-time to be honest,” said Gowling talking to Keith Hall.

“We had enough chances in the game to be comfortable in the game and we didn’t take them and then we end up scoring an own goal at the end.

“You come to places like this, if you don’t take your chances you always run the risk of something like that happening and that’s what happened today. We could have easily been two or three goals up at half-time.

“When you get the chances we’ve had and don’t put them in the net you feel nervy. It felt a nervy second half for us.

“We had eight shots in the first half with three or four clear cut opportunities, it is there but you need to put the ball in the net.”

During the second half newly promoted Scarborough provided a direct threat and Gowling felt his side lost the midfield battle.

The Seadogs captain Michael Coulson provided a threat firing wide from a decent opening and Hereford goalkeeper Brad Wade was also forced to deny Lewis Maloney.

“For me in the second half we lost the battle in the middle of the park,” added Gowling.

“I think they got on top of us a little bit in the middle. The lads put in a good performance in the first half but then you want them to roll their sleeves up a little in the second half and be a bit more direct at times, play short at times and figure out the opposition.

“Naturally they (Scarborough) are going to press on higher, which they did. Then we have to recognise the space in behind them a little bit more to our pace with Ryan (McLean) and Miles (Storey) but we just didn’t do that.

“We came out in the second half and nearly scored after a minute. You want us to kick on in the second half and we just didn’t do that.

Hereford have made a host of signings during the summer with five of the summer arrivals starting against Scarborough.

Gowling says his side will ‘learn along the way’ from defeats like the one in Yorkshire.

“You need games like this sometimes for the lads to feel a loss to have an understanding of what is required at this level,” added Gowling.

“We’ve got a new squad and we’ve got to learn together as a group what we need to do in them moments.”