1. How long have you been involved and what first attracted you
to the club?
Speaking personally, I first became a supporter of
Benfield in September 2003, which was the start of the club’s first season in
the Northern League. Back then I was still a Newcastle United season ticket
holder, but because of some game or other being moved for Sky, I had a spare Saturday, so I took a wander down to my nearest
Northern League side and saw a thumping 4-1 win over Thornaby in the FA Vase.
The game was great; the welcome warm and genuine, so a bond was formed. After
about a decade as a fan, I then stepped up to become programme editor. I’ve not
regretted it for one second.
2. What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of your
role?
I regard being involved with a club that I love
with every fibre of my being as an absolute honour. I am proud beyond words to
have this role and would love to do it for as long as I’m needed. Everything to
do with editing the programme brings me rewards; even the challenges involving
deadlines, such as 6 home games in 21 days at the end of 2017/2018, are
positive experiences.
3. How’s the general mood down at the club at the moment?
At the time of writing, we’ve gone 11 games
unbeaten and have won our last 7 in a row, so the atmosphere is pretty positive
round Sam Smith’s Park. We have a superb squad of lads, blending experience,
youth, craft, guile and skill. The manager, Tom Wade, is an experienced and
astute tactician who shows every indication of taking the club not just forward,
but onwards and upwards.
4. How would you say the season has gone so far for the club?
Expectations were high at the start of the season,
as we’d signed a raft of excellent players to complement the vast majority of
last season’s squad. Sadly, things didn’t gel, for whatever reason. We simply
couldn’t score enough goals and suffered several narrow defeats. Previous boss
Mark Convery and his assistant Craig Heward, who’d done a great job for 3
years, simply felt they couldn’t take the club and further and left in early
October. Since then, Tom has come in with his assistant Ross McKay and our
fortunes have turned around. Of course, we’re deeply grateful to Mark and were
sad to see him go.
5. What are your plans for the rest of the campaign?
Currently, we’re 7th in the league,
have made it to the last 32 of the FA Vase with a home tie against Northwich
Victoria to come, as well as still being in the Northern League Cup and
Northumberland Senior Cup. After the slow start we had, we couldn’t wish to be
in a better position with 2019 on the horizon. I think it is fair to say,
everyone at the club would love a cup final and, hopefully, some silverware at
the end of it.
6. How important is youth football to the club?
It is essential. Benfield have a proud reputation
for junior football sides, both boys and girls from U8s upwards. We try to
involve the youngsters from the earliest levels, by making them matchday
mascots, encouraging parents and families as a whole to attend our games. Also,
we host all social events and training on the pitches adjacent to our ground,
utilising the clubhouse and related facilities as a hub for everyone under the
Benfield umbrella to feel at home in.
7. How do you ensure that young players enjoy a smooth transition
into the senior game?
This season we are running a reserve
side in the Tyneside Amateur League.
Obviously, the football is a good few levels than the first team operate
at, but it gives a sense of the kind of organic progression we are looking for,
by providing a potential pathway from mini soccer for 7-year olds, through to
the first team. It is both a challenge for and an ambition of the club going
forwards.
8. Would you consider yours to be a community club?
A very interesting question, which depends on your
definition of “community.” If we are talking about a geographical location,
then emphatically not, as Benfield is a road with a large school on one side
and a hospital on the other, with a light industrial estate behind it. Of
course, that is a simplistic definition as we are most definitely the go to
club for everyone in the east end of Newcastle, drawing support from Heaton,
Byker, Walker, Wallsend and even the Coast. We’ve got volunteers from 18 to 80,
in the shape of our young kit man Bailey O’Brien and our legendary trainer
Derek Gair, who has devoted more than 60 years of his life to football in this
area. Recently, we’ve totally
refurbished our club house and revamped our catering facilities. The bar is
open most nights and gets pleasantly full on a Friday night. We offer superb
Sunday lunches, which we’ll even deliver if you so ask. Indeed, we are
delighted to be able to host a free Christmas lunch for the elderly, staffed
entirely by club volunteers, including delivery drivers for those old folks who
can’t easily get about. Incidentally, if all this talk of food and drink is
making you feel a little stuffed, there is our fantastically well-appointed,
competitively priced gym on site; take it from me, they can sort out even the
most slothful of us.
9. What do you believe could be some of the biggest challenges
the club may face in the coming years?
Last season, our groundsman Stan Thompson, who
performs miracles with our pitch, would have said Mother Nature as the elements
played havoc with the pitch and fixture list. Obviously, we have to take the
endless search for new supporters and generous sponsors as a given task, not to
mention the desire to find the best players possible to wear the blue and white
of Benfield. However, the real elephant in the room is the FA enforced
restructuring of football at our level and the one above, which will come into
effect at the end of the 2019/2020 season. Despite the proximity of the date,
details are sketchy, but it seems up to a dozen clubs from the Northern League
may well be forcibly promoted a level, into a league that would stretch as far
south as Doncaster. If this involves Benfield, and there is every indication it
will, then the whole ethos of the grassroots game in this region will be
affected, not just us.
10. What are the club’s ambitions for the next 5 years?
Notwithstanding the intangible elements bound up
in my previous answer, I think everyone at Benfield would say the same thing;
to cement our place as the number one non-league club in Newcastle, playing the
best kind of football at the highest levels possible, for all ages. In short,
we want the whole community north of the Tyne to be as proud of Benfield as
possible.
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