Ben Herd Interview: The Brutal Reality of Non-League Football & Old-School Mentality

Uh, yes and no.

Mm-hmm.

I'd say, like, what you see around the place, okay, the pitch is an obvious one.

It's a big green patch of grass, if you like-

[laughs]

... or plastic grass, but it's on there, on there, which gives us a great facility to use, and that's been, um, yeah, fundamentally ch- just changed the fabric of the football club in terms of what we can offer and, and our scope and what we have and who we have here now as well.

So essentially before, before that sort of time, if you like, the club would open once every two weeks for a home game.

Um, that obviously now brings it to life pretty much 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Um, and as a result of that, you know, we've got, um, numerous youth teams in terms of boys and girls, which has been great.

We've obviously grown in terms of have a women's full-timer.

Um, not full-time, sorry.

We wanna have a full-time academy-

Mm

... actually next year.

But, um, we've got a women's first team.

Um, and we've got, um, a disability team.

We've got the full-time education here as well, and that's really helped us, and we've been really successful in that time, um, probably as a result of the pitch giving us that base-

Mm

... that real base that we've got.

Mm.

So, um, so yeah, lots, lots improved, lots changed, but, um, we've, uh, got a lot more to do.

But obviously having a grass pitch, like when I play, nowhere near the level that you guys are at, um, when, when I play on grass, I do prefer it compared to like Astroturf.

But I know that as a businessman you're gonna wanna pick that, right?

No.

No, actually different actually.