There is not too much encouragement to be gleaned from drawing at home with the team at the bottom of the table.

The worrying stats are stacking up. Ten weeks into the season Albion are still waiting for their first win at Withdean in League One.

They also passed up an opportunity to end a league run without a victory which now stretches to eight matches against opponents previously pointless on their travels.

Even a much-needed clean sheet is hard to get too excited about against a side as modest and impotent as Hereford.

The comeback of Kevin McLeod is a different matter. He only played for a third of the match but still offered genuine hope that Albion’s fortunes are about to turn.

Micky Adams’ first forray into the transfer market on his return as manager was to lure the Evertonian winger away from Colchester.

McLeod showed up well during pre-season and when the season proper got under way.

He is a missing ingredient from the six-match unbeaten sequence in all competitions at the beginning of the campaign.

Even Albion’s only defeat with McLeod on the pitch, at home to Scunthorpe at the start of September, came when he was not fit, a nagging knee injury eventually requiring an operation.

In his first appearance since then, McLeod demonstrated glimpses in the last half-hour of why Adams signed him.

Adams’ preferred system is an orthodox 4-4-2 and, for that to function effectively, quality service from wide areas is essential.

McLeod, hugging the left-hand touchline, provided a couple of probing crosses. He also linked up well with the front men and, once he is fully fit, will rediscover the pace to take him away from defenders following a setback in his recovery timetable caused by a ruptured cyst.

“It’s nice to be back,” said McLeod. “It has been a bit frustrating, stop-start.

“The last game I played was Scunthorpe and I would say I am about 80 per cent fit at the moment. “The thing in my favour is that I was working while I was injured. The only thing that stopped me was the rupture of the cyst, which kept me off for four or five days. I pushed myself a bit too much to come back and play. I felt it went okay. I think we were trying a bit too hard. We’ve got so many good players at the club, it just needs a while to gel.

“There have been loads of changes and a lot of injuries. Once we get a settled team in a run of games I think we’ll do okay.”

The problem for Adams is that McLeod is not the only player short of the kind of sharpness that only first team matches can bring, and that does not just apply to the injured.

“He (McLeod) needs to build his fitness up, as do some of the loan players we have brought in,” Adams said.

“The level of fitness some of them were at was disappointing. They are playing catch-up and, unfortunately, we might not see the best of them until they are fully fit but they are getting there.”

Robbie Savage, who had his best match so far, will in all probability be back in the bosom of his family by then.

He is missing them and, as much as he is enjoying life on the south coast, is likely to be looking for a move closer to home once his loan from Derby expires at the end of the month.

That is a shame because, at this late stage of his career, a modified version of the Savage rival fans up and down the country have loved to hate, demanding the ball in deep areas and passing it simply but crisply, has something to offer at Albion’s level.

Only when he goes harrying with not quite the same spring in his step as in his prime are you reminded that he was celebrating his 34tth birthday on Saturday.

It wasn’t much of a present. Hereford, mindful no doubt of that recent Withdean failure to open up nine-man Walsall, were happy to funnell men behind the ball and Albion could not break them down.

They retained possession pretty well and probed away but it was all rather ponderous, with too many touches required.

Joe Anyinsah’s searing pace was rarely exploited and, considering the amount of possession they had, disappointingly few chances were manufactured.

The best was handed to them when Richard Rose inadvertently headed into the path of Glenn Murray. There was nothing wrong with his shot but Hereford keeper Darren Randolph made a fine save with his legs.

Albion were also miffed not to be awarded a late penalty when Anyinsah seemed to be clipped from behind as he threatened to convert a low cross from substitute Kevin Thornton. Adams called it “blatant”.

Even the comfort of a clean sheet was jeopardised by a long range free-kick from Kris Taylor, which forced Michel Kuipers into his only serious save, and defensive confusion in the closing stages, from which sub Nick Chadwick nearly profited.

That nervy moment emenated from an error by Adam Virgo, who has become a victim of his versatility and, in common with one or two of his team-mates, appears to have lost confidence.

The winless streak is draining that, especially the home form in the league.

ALBION (4-4-2): Kuipers; Whing, Hawkins, El-Abd, Richards; Anyinsah, Thomson, Savage, Cox; Murray, Virgo.

SUBS: Thornton for Cox (withdrawn 60), McLeod for Whing (withdrawn 61), Livermore, Robinson, Fraser.

YELLOW CARD: El-Abd (65) foul.

HEREFORD (4-4-2): Randolph; Jackson, Broadhurst, N'Gotty, Rose; Gwynne, Diagouraga, Taylor, Easton; Williams, Guinan.

SUBS: Chadwick for Guinan (injured 83), Hudson-Odoi for Williams (withdrawn 84), Smith, Samson, Beckwith.

YELLOW CARDS: Broadhurst (21) foul, Diagouraga (55) foul, N'Gotty (87) foul.

What do you think?