WITH a name like Clint Easton, the Hereford United midfielder should be comfortable with shoot-outs.

But the 29-year-old wants to avoid the play-off misery he experienced as a young player.

Easton played for Norwich City in the Championship play-off final against Birmingham City in May 2002.

Although he scored in the shoot-out, Easton's Norwich side lost 4-2 on penalties after the match had ended 1-1.

"I don't want to go through all that again, although it was a great experience playing at the Millennium Stadium," said Easton. "It would be great if we could avoid the play-offs and penalty shoot-outs and go up in an automatic promotion spot."

Easton, who has played in the Premiership, is in his first season with the Bulls having signed a two-year deal following his release by Gillingham last summer.

"It has started off very well. A good thing has been that no-one, apart from us, thought we would be in with a chance of promotion. The other teams around us have been promotion favourites from the start. We have some excellent players and had a lot of shrewd loan signings. In the club, we realise the ability that is here and when we get everything right, it's great to see how well we get on."

Easton was in the thick of the action in United's last League 2 outing, the shock 2-1 defeat to Lincoln City on Bank Holiday Monday.

Lincoln skipper Scott Kerr was shown a straight red card after a two-footed challenge on Easton in the 30th minute.

And then Ben Wright went down under a challenge from Easton in the 84th minute which led to Dany N'Guessan scoring Lincoln's winner from the penalty-spot.

"We were devastated at the defeat. When we got the goal back it looked like we were going to win.

"The way we lost was very hard to take. The lad who was sent off jumped in with two feet. There was no need for him to have done it. Those sorts of challenges can end playing careers and I don't think the referee had any choice but to send him off."

"The player who won the penalty was going through and I happened to be behind him. The referee didn't award the penalty - it was the linesman, so I was very disappointed."

The left-sided midfielder is now looking forward to Saturday's clash with Chester City at Edgar Street.

"Everyone outside the club is talking about the matches with MK Dons, Darlington and Peterborough but you still only get three points for a win and one point for a draw. We have to take one game at a time and that has to start with Chester."

He thought the away game at Chester earlier in the season, which ended 1-1, was one of the hardest in which he had played for Hereford.

"I was very impressed with Chester. They were on a great run at the time. The games like Chester, Bury and Lincoln are the sort of matches in which you have to dig deep."

Barking-born Easton has settled well in Hereford where he is living with United team-mates John McCombe and Mike Ingham.

"To be honest, I didn't know where Hereford was at first. I spoke to a few people who knew the area. It felt right and I was happy to sign for the club."

"The team meet up regularly - and I am sure that's part of the reason for the success so far this season. We don't listen to what other people say about us, we concentrate on our own thing."

Easton started his career with Watford and played 17 times in the Premiership in the 1999-2000 season.

He made nearly 80 appearances for Watford in seven years with the club.

Easton also played alongside Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher and Danny Murphy for England in the under-20 Youth Cup in Singapore in June 1997.

He added: "The scout who approached me last summer knew of me from my Watford days and I then spoke to the Hereford manager, Graham Turner. Everything he said was positive and I knew that Hereford would be a good place to play."