HEREFORD United manager Graham Turner has admitted that the club’s troubles this season have cast a dark cloud over Edgar Street.

The Bulls won promotion to Coca-Cola League One last season, winning 26 times along the way.

But their campaign in the third tier has proved an entirely different experience.

The club have struggled to hold their own in a higher division following the success of the previous season and have tasted victory just nine times.

They currently lie 12 points adrift of safety, with four matches left.

Indeed, anything other than a win against Colchester United tomorrow would send Hereford back to League Two, at the first time of asking.

The Bulls were left on the verge of relegation following their 3-1 defeat at Tranmere Rovers, on Monday.

And after that game, boss Turner said the joy of last season’s promotion has been overshadowed by the painful events of this season.

He said: “It’s a very sad day but I wouldn’t have swapped the experience of playing at this level.

“I said after the Leicester game that we could have been in the top seven or eight in the second division and it would have been a fairly happy camp.

“It’s probably not the time to go into detail – that might be done over the next seven days – but there is just a huge depression about the place after everything that happened last season.”

Hereford have already begun reshaping their squad for next season.

Goalkeeper Craig Samson has left the Bulls by mutual consent.

The Scottish custodian arrived at Edgar Street from Dundee last summer.

However, Samson has fallen down the pecking order following the arrival of Liverpool loanee Peter Gulacsi in January.

The 25-year-old former Dundee United and Ross County goalkeeper has now been allowed to leave, after making 11 starts for the club.