Fans give mixed reaction as Hereford confirm departure of their manager

Fans took to give a mixed reaction as Hereford confirm the departure of their first team manager Josh Gowling on Sunday afternoon.

The Bulls announce that Gowling, appointed in January 2020, has left the club by mutual consent, after his side picked up their third defeat in a row on Saturday.

The 1-0 defeat at Farsley Celtic leaves them 15th in the National League North standings, with 35 points from 29 games played.

STATEMENT | Hereford FC can confirm that First Team Manager, Josh Gowling, has today left the club by mutual consent.https://t.co/Lq1YpUZafW pic.twitter.com/zs4q29mT48

— HerefordFC (@HerefordFC) February 5, 2023

CLUB STATEMENT:

Hereford FC can confirm that First Team Manager, Josh Gowling, has today left the club by mutual consent.

Assistant Manager, Yan Klukowski will take charge of The Bulls on an interim basis, assisted by Jared Hodgkiss and the existing back room staff.

We are looking to appoint a new manager as soon as possible, further details will be provided about the recruitment process in due course.

Bulls Chairman, Jon Hale, commented:

‘We’d like to thank Josh for his hard work and dedication during his time as manager of Hereford FC and wish him well for the future.’

JON HALE STATEMENT:

Over the next 2 weeks we have 3 huge home games, starting with Tuesday night’s encounter under the lights against Southport. My message to our magnificent supporters ahead of those fixtures is clear – your team, and your club, needs you!

Through your committed, vocal backing we can provide the players with the lift they need as we look to get back to winning ways.

Tuesday’s game is quickly followed by Saturday’s home fixture against Alfreton and then Curzon Ashton at Edgar Street on Saturday 18th February. I know that times are tough financially for many and that people may be hard to justify attendance at matches, but if you can make it would be appreciated by everyone at the club as we all know that a large, noisy crowd gives the players huge encouragement.

Over the weekend, tough conversations have taken place, but it is vitally important time to now rally round our caretaker management team of Yan and Jared as I know all the players will. They are an honest group and give everything for Hereford FC.

I cannot hide away from the fact it has been a very difficult couple of days for everyone at the club as Josh Gowling’s time with us came to an end, bringing to a close to a long association between our club and a man who was first a player, and then our manager.

I did not enjoy the conversation with Josh because we have had a great working relationship since I returned as Chair at the start of last season and I have always found him to be someone who worked with integrity, and in an honest and passionate manner. There is absolutely no question that he has been dedicated to his work for Hereford FC.

That said, football is a results business and Josh knew only too well that recent performances and results had not been good enough. I wish Josh every possible success for his future involvement in the game, and with his commitment to the cause and the hard work he puts in, I am sure that he will enjoy success elsewhere.

Looking at where we find ourselves, I want to put on record that, as a club, we continue to be indebted to our supporters for your role in our progression. With your help the playing budget was increased this season due to the very successful squad builder campaign. This raised £60,000 and every single penny of this went into the playing pool and has been utilised.

We have recently increased the budget again to help stave off an injury crisis the like of which would cripple any club. We simply had to bring in players to try to strengthen and support the manager.

Looking forward we have started the process of planning for next season’s playing budget, which will obviously now be used with a new person at the helm. We will continue to do this planning diligently.

The process to identify and appoint our new manager is already underway and we will look to have someone in place in a timeframe that is right for the club. By that, I mean we will not rush the appointment because it is a critical decision that we have to get right. We immediately received a number of expressions of interest from some well-placed candidates, and I would expect more to follow because I believe this to be an attractive job, at a fantastic club with a magnificent support.

I am indebted to Graham Turner, with whom I have a very good relationship, as he has offered to work alongside us in the process to deliver the right person, with the best possible credentials, in a suitable timescale. We would be foolish to turn away such experience when making such key decisions, and Graham still has the club very much at heart.

The club has to move forward in a sustainable fashion, so whoever is appointed to manage our club will have to be well versed in managing budgets, while also knowing the level and getting the absolute best out of the squad at all times. We believe that person can be found and are looking forward to moving the club forward from this point on, initially under the stewardship of Yan and Jared, who I’d like to thank for stepping up to help at this point.

Yan and Jared have great respect for each other having played for several clubs together over a number of years. They know Hereford FC extremely well and are desperate to help bring about an upturn in form.

Through our support, we can all demonstrate to Yan, Jared and all our playing staff how much we want them to succeed. They will be doing their very best and, as fans of this great club, lets make sure we are doing the same.

See you on Tuesday night, please bring a friend and, most of all, lets make some noise and get behind the lads from first whistle to last.

CLUB NEWS | An update from Chairman, Jon Hale.https://t.co/8X0szOPXks pic.twitter.com/xpry7X79aC

— HerefordFC (@HerefordFC) February 6, 2023

INTERVIEW WITH MANAGER POST-MATCH

We pretty much dominate the whole game, but at the end of the day, if we’re not going to score, we need to make changes. Obviously they weren’t running today. That’s why we brought Jack on. But again, the amount of times we put the ball in the box and we don’t want to have the desire to get on the end of things and put it in the back of the net is very frustrating for me because we’re creating good opportunities. And there was a couple, even after they scored. I mean, Levy’s come down the right hand side, and he’s flashed the ball across the char box, and there’s three people on the edge of the box. It’s a question of dominating possession. Yes, but it’s like cutting edge, as you quite like you say, firepower. We dominate in possession and we’re creating chances. So it’s not like we’re just keeping the ball and not creating anything, we’re creating loads of chances, but at the end of the day, if you haven’t got someone to put the ball back in the net, those chances don’t mean a lot. So it’s something we’ve got to address in quickly. And this game typifies really the National League North team that’s fighting for their very existence in this division.

So they’re not going to give you a game?

No. Buxton come here the last game, and they lost boxing last year as well to them. So obviously it’s a difficult service, difficult place to come, the way they play, they’re direct and they’re scrapping and they’re fighting for it. So, yeah, they’re difficult games, but you expect it to come here and win and we want to bounce back after. They were also bad of late and obviously it wasn’t meant to be today.

What did you make of the red card incident with Frank Mulhern?

I mean, he’d been doing it all game, so it wasn’t the first time he done it, but the ref didn’t want to get hold of it and then you end up, you know, we’ve had something the other week with Jack when tackles that were thrown in and the ref doesn’t want to protect the players. And again today, and it takes an elbow in the face for him to realize that, yeah, it’s dangerous play, but, yeah, ref, any reason? We lost the game, that’s for sure. But it was definitely a red.

Three defeats on the spin, three home games now, back to back. Somehow you’ve got to find a way back. We always do. So we’re working there, the lads are disappointed. I’m not too happy. I’ve had a bad couple of weeks now we’ve lost games, but we’ll find a way. We’ll tweak things with what we’ve had to do here, obviously. Fortunately, we haven’t had a week where we have an injury with the team, so we’ve had to constantly change things, change shape, do that stuff. So we’ll find a way, we’ll dig in. The lads are disappointed in there. We’ll get back in early Monday and we’ll go again, ready for Tuesday, because obviously, Southport coming in where Hereford were a few weeks ago on the fringe, so they’re to be coming to try and win the game as well. 100%. Yeah, definitely. Look, like we said, this league is a crazy league, isn’t it? Everyone beats everyone, so we’ll see what happens on Tuesday, but we’ve got to be better than that.

As mentioned, fans give a mixed reaction as Hereford confirm the departure of their manager…

@elliott78073578: get everyone down to edgar street on tuesday support the boys

@Jclm04: Lets forget recent performance, Thank you for the past few years 👏🏻👏🏻

@tpottage03: Right decision, shame it didn’t work out for Gowling. I do seriously worry about how this club financially survives though

@rowey2017: Josh is a good guy . But only one man for the job . Now. Mr Ian long .

@Richard51915054: I genuinely feel for him, decent bloke but wasn’t going to get us out of this league, I wish him all the best for the future

@boycarr: Right decision for all concerned I think. Josh is a decent bloke and I’m sure he’s just as gutted at how things have turned out. Wish him all the best for the future and just hope the board have a plan moving forward.

@Superfreak_81: The problem at Hereford is ownership. Josh Gowling is a top young manager.

@DeanLewisDavies: Thank you Josh for your service, dedication and most importantly for closing the door on your way out 👋🏻

@jimmybolts87: We need someone with NLN know how, I worry if there is anyone worth their salt in our budget range or interested in the travel to our place! Stevie Guinan would be a left field one but no experience would be a gamble…now to see what the boards ‘vision’ is

@joshcollins97: Jamie Vermiglio in please, did a good job at Chorley on a restricted budget.

@ProbablyRicardo: Inevitable. Sorry it didn’t work out for him but things needed to change and this can now begin.

@JackPug09814967: Right decision, right time. But Thank you Josh for some of the great moments. Time for the club to move onwards and upwards but Hale needs to step down before that can happen.

@Alexhardman2: The decision to sack our very successful manager Pete Beadle is still hurting the club many years later. Still haven’t got his replacement right after years of trying. I do wonder if they regret that decision?

@Richard51915054: It worries me who these clowns are going to bring in?

@_jamiek: Thanks for getting us to the FA Trophy final and navigating us through a tricky couple of years Josh! 👏🏼 Best of luck for the future.

@NicholasEvans_: No sense of delight about this. Sad for a man who has lost his job but unfortunately his position was completely untenable. Onwards

@up_utp: Shame this has happened as if they had kept that clueless 🤡 Gowling I’ve no doubt Hereford would be another team dragged into the relegation battle

@Mattj646: Had to happen but the board are just as accountable for this mess and do not hold any hope of a decent replacement…

@VivaWM_1987: Inevitable in the end but he deserved considerably more for his efforts than this circus of a board led by the sky bastard @jonathanhale05 Don’t forget some of us know what you did when HUFC was dying, Jon.

@Tatty_Lad: Huge call, if the new manager isn’t already identified. An interim is fine for a week, but we need stability. Well done @jonathanhale05 as that’s a big decision. That’s what leadership looks like. #HerefordFC

@jdsmith270: The problem is above Josh, but the majority of the fans are to thick to see that!