DIRECTOR of football Gary Peters says Hereford United are desperately trying to reduce their playing budget in order to avoid a new year transfer embargo.

Peters revealed the Bulls’ wages for players total more than the permitted 55 per cent of their turnover.

If the Edgar Street club cannot get that figure down, then they risk action from the Football League.

“Lots of clubs have had transfer embargoes placed on them because they have been over the salary cap,” the former Shrewsbury Town manager explained.

“What we have to do is get it down because I’m sure the league would take action against us.

“That would mean we would not be able to sign anyone or bring in players on loan if we need to.”

Peters admitted boss Jamie Pitman had suffered with the issue since taking charge last term.

The Bulls director of football continued: “There are players the previous manager (Simon Davey) signed on two-year contracts who were not really good enough — that has been a major problem for us.

“But Janos Kovacs is likely to stay out on loan at Luton for the rest of the season so that helps.

“We also have nine players who are sharing £1,000 a week between them — they just want to prove they can play at this level.”

Peters revealed keeper Adam Bartlett is likely to be in the squad for tomorrow’s League Two visit of Burton Albion (3pm) for the first time since his thigh injury in mid-August. United will also have on-loan striker Tom Barkhuizen and midfielder Steven Leslie back after their clubs did not want them to be cup-tied in last weekend’s 3-0 defeat to Yeovil.

Peters added: “We knew it was going to be tough last week because of the players we were missing, but we are in much better shape for Burton.

“There is a positive we can take from being out of the cup and that is we do have less games to play which will help us in a bid to stay up.”