HEREFORD manager Josh Gowling accepted that his side aren’t coping with their injury crisis after missing 12 players during their 3-0 defeat at Heybridge Swifts.

Despite sitting two leagues below Hereford the Swifts punished their weakened visitors dumping them out of the FA Trophy.

New signing Callum Rowe was added to the injury list with a pulled hamstring and Aaron Amadi-Holloway was out after catching Covid-19.

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“If you look at the squad we have 12 players injured, eight or nine of those you would start,” said Hereford manager Josh Gowling talking to Keith Hall.

“We’re just not coping, the games are coming thick and fast. We’re not training as we would like because of the injuries.

“I tried to get a full-back in today to have a look at (Kody Maunde). We’ve got Mark (Derricott) playing. There’s players out there that need a rest and because of the injury situation that we’ve got we just can’t give people rests.

“We’re patching people up and they look tired. We’re changing the team every week. The lads have been absolutely fantastic, we’ve been patching the lads up all season.

“Any squad in the country if they lose 12 players would find it difficult and we are at the moment.”

They came up against a Swifts sides who were ruthless at punishing Hereford on the break with Ross Wall heading home the opener before second half goals from Rhys Henry and Rob Harvey completed the win.

“Two of the goals we gave them by giving the ball away in bad areas and the other is a set play,” added Gowling.

“We’ve got a good history in this competition so wanted to go far, but putting in that performance and losing 3-0 was not great.

“I don’t think we dealt with their nine (Ross Wall) very well, he was pulling off our full-backs, he’s big and strong. I don’t think we really dealt with that well enough.”