JOHN Trewick believes Hereford United's mid-week thumping of Ludlow will give them a big confidence boost when they take on Birmingham City tomorrow.

The Championship side will provide a much sterner test when they visit Edgar Street (3pm).

But coach Trewick believes the 10-0 demolition of the Shropshire outfit got their pre-season campaign off to the perfect start.

"It was good for the confidence and the most important thing was all the strikers got off the mark," said Trewick.

"It is our annual fixture against Ludlow. It's a great place to go and it serves a purpose. It was the first game of pre-season and I think there were 20 or 21 players who got a game. It was very successful. Nobody played more than 45 minutes."

New recruit Tim Sills bagged four of the goals to make an ideal start to his Bulls career.

"If ever you score four goals it's worthy of a mention," said Trewick. "His confidence will be sky-high. Obviously, there's a big difference in the sides but any time you score four goals it's good."

Even though tomorrow's opposition will be significantly stronger than the West Midlands League premier division side, Trewick insists they will approach the Blues encounter the same way.

"I think it will be a similar approach," he said. "Birmingham are bringing across a young-ish side. They are at a good level themselves and it will be a decent test for us.

"I would think the plan is to give everybody a game. Some people will get more than 45 minutes, maybe an hour's football for some.

"The results aren't important. It's nice to win but it's more important to perform. We are looking at individual performances.

"Those little things that we're doing in training, we're looking for those to come to fruition."

The Bulls are looking to make three or four new signings before the start of the season with a central defender, a midfielder and a utility player top of the wish-list.

Hereford chiefs remain tight-lipped over player identities but are believed to be running the rule over former Bournemouth and Torquay forward Alan Connell.

The 23-year-old scored twice against Ludlow after joining the action as a substitute.