"THE league will not be won in the first month of the season" – that is the message Hereford manager Peter Beadle wants to tell the fans as the Bulls prepare to start life "in the unknown".

Hereford will be starting life in the Midland Football League Premier Division – the ninth tier of English football and four leagues below where it was just 15 months ago.

Beadle was in charge of Hereford United when the Bulls miraculously escaped relegation from the Conference Premier after famously beating Aldershot Town.

United were later thrown out of the league due to mounting debts and re-started in the Southern Football League Premier Division before the High Court wound them up last December. After selling more than 1,200 season tickets and attracting 4,258 fans for its first ever home game against FC United of Manchester, Hereford have been tipped by many to be red-hot favourites to win the league.

But Beadle knows his team have to earn the right to gain promotion and knows a tough battle lies ahead.

"We know it's going to be tough whether we are home or away because we will be the proverbial big team and everyone would want to beat us," said Beadle.

"It will be like their cup final.

"We need to make sure that our home form is good and when we go away from home that we prepare as best we can.

"There's going to be a lot of teams coming here and when they first come out, they will be happy with the ground and the pitch, but I'm hoping that how vocal our fans are and how difficult they will make it for the teams that come here, players won't be used to that sort of environment and hopefully that will put them on edge a little bit."

Hereford face Dunkirk at Edgar Street this Saturday before making the short journey to Stourport Swifts next Tuesday.

Beadle admits he doesn't know too much about Dunkirk.

"It's hard to watch games in pre-season when you're having your own games and us having so many things to do with players coming on trial, so there's going to be a bit of the unknown for us," he said.

"But hopefully we can pick up a few bits and pieces during the week on their game and how they've gone and we know people in certain areas of the country that hopefully we can pick their brains about the teams that we're going to come up against if we don't get a chance to see them.

"Primarily, we've got to make sure that we concentrate on our own house and make sure we're in order and do things properly and the rest will take care of itself.

"It's vitally important that anyone gets off to a winning start in any campaign whether we've been playing for 150 years or for our first year."

Ex-Hereford United players Rob Purdie and Tony James were quickly signed up by Beadle before Joel Edwards, another former player, was added.

That experience is mixed with a lot of youth, including players who played under Beadle for the Hereford United youth team.

Beadle says he is happy with his squad but wants to add to the 15 who are currently on board.

In the Midland League, players can register for another club, as long as it doesn't play in the same league.

"I have confidence in the players we have here at the moment that we're going to be a tough team to play against," said Beadle.

"We still want to add to it if we can which hopefully we'll do in the next few weeks but we are not in a huge rush at the moment.

"Players will always present themselves at various times of the year but we're happy with the squad as it is at the moment and it's taken shape nicely."