HEREFORD caretaker manager Yan Klukowski devoted his side’s 2-0 victory against Southport on Tuesday night for former boss Josh Gowling.

Gowling departed Edgar Street ‘by mutual consent’ after his side suffered their fourth defeat in five league games at struggling Farsley Celtic on Saturday. Klukowski is in charge of Hereford on an interim basis, assisted by Jared Hodgkiss.

Hereford responded to his departure with a 2-0 win with Tyrone Barnett’s second half penalty followed by a Dan Jarvis second at the death.

“That was a performance and a result for Josh (Gowling),” said Klukowski.

“He’s sadly departed us, but the group were desperate to get a win for him to show our appreciation for the work that he’s done and bringing us all to the football club.

“That win is for him, it’s for the fans and for the whole club in general.”

Klukowski said that he had discussed a change of shape for Hereford ahead of the Southport job with Gowling prior to his former boss’ departure.

“They put in a magnificent shift, we’ve only really worked on that change of shape for one day so to apply that and have good understanding and to do that tonight and give the fans a fantastic performance was really pleasing,” added Klukowski.

“We had an extra body in there (midfield), the tactics and change of shape was something that me and Josh (Gowling discussed on Saturday. We picked the formation that suited the lads we had in the building.

“They (the players) competed, they did everything that we didn’t do against Farsley, the basics of the game, they competed in the first contact, second balls. There was a real togetherness if people made mistakes or slipped on a very difficult surface then we had people backing each other up.”