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Ben Herd on skullduggery, consistent inconsistency and being invisible!
Well, it's been a bit of a frustrating past 7 days as an Aldershot Town player, we lost 0-2 at home to a Burton side who have now done the League double over us. Sometimes you can kind of accept being beat, mainly if you are extremely unlucky, or a poor refereeing decision. Last saturday wasn't either of those two reasons, we were just simply poor! So poor in fact the gaffer had us in at 9am on Sunday morning. The only silver lining is the fact that the results were largely kind for us. League 2 is a funny league to be in at the minute with teams, like ourselves being consistently inconsistent. There are now 12 games left of the season and we are just on the cusp of the play-off's and I believe that if we win 7 of our remaining games, then we would be very unlucky to miss out on them.
It must have been a pretty frustrating week for Burnley boss Brian Laws; he moved the advertising hoardings to within 5ft of the pitch to deny space for Rory Delaps mammoth throw - how ironic that Stoke score from Delap's throw! I thought old school tricks like this were a thing of the past in the top flight. I have heard of managers telling a YTS player to lurk outside the away teams dressing room and eavesdrop on their team talks. When Gary Peters was my manager at Shrewsbury, he once ordered a 3 tonne steamroller to flatten out the pitch at the old Gay Meadow, apparently to nullify MK Dons long ball approach, don't ask me how though. The next little snippet comes from my old team mate, Richard Walker. He was telling me that the night before his Bristol Rovers took on my Shrewsbury team in the play-off final at Wembley, someone kept ringing all of the Bristol players’ rooms and just hanging up, and then at 3 am someone set off the the hotel fire alarms, thus causing a mass evacuation. I wonder who was behind all of this skullduggery?
Talking of under hand tactics, it has emerged this week that the England hotel, oddly enough the same hotel that Bristol Rovers stayed at, was bugged during their last stay. It has often crossed my mind how many managers up and down the country have had their away team dressing room bugged? If I was a manager, I think I would seriously consider employing such a tactic. In doing so, you could be privy to basically every set piece your opponents are going to do, and also listen in on some of the rollicking being handed out. It would be quality to hear someone like Neil Warnock going potty!
Ask Herdy:
Why have we been so consistently inconsistent this season!? from Steve in Aldershot
The million dollar question Steve, your’re probably just as frustrated as me on our performances, one week we are like Brazil, then the next we are more like Bognor Regis! If I am honest, it probably comes down to a bit of naivety, but let's be positive and focus on the good points, If I told you 6-7 years ago that you would be beating the likes of Bradford down at "The Rec," then I am sure you would have been happy.
What was Baschurch like to live in, I'm thinking of moving there, so any thoughts on the local night life, fish and chips shops appreciated! Pete in Shropshire
I hope this isn't Pete Downward, because I was hoping the house prices might go up, but not if you move there! Only kidding, it is a lovely place to live and I really miss living there, the people down at "The Admiral Duncan" are a nice bunch to have a drink with after a match and the "New Inn" restaurant is a nice setting to have a decent meal. If you are going to the fish and chip shop, make sure you take your mortgage broker because they charge a fortune!
What superstitions do you have?
I don't really, except I always use the same urinal prior to kick off, some of the lads must think I am some kind of weirdo when I am waiting for them to finish when the urinal next to them is free!
Who is your favourite current and past player? Darren in London
Steven Gerrard and David Ginola.
If you could be invisible for the day, what would you get up to!? Ian in Shrewsbury
Go perving!! Oh...and change my tax records!!
Please send any questions to askherdy@bigtips.co.uk that you'd like posing to Ben and we'll feature the answers in future articles.
It must have been a pretty frustrating week for Burnley boss Brian Laws; he moved the advertising hoardings to within 5ft of the pitch to deny space for Rory Delaps mammoth throw - how ironic that Stoke score from Delap's throw! I thought old school tricks like this were a thing of the past in the top flight. I have heard of managers telling a YTS player to lurk outside the away teams dressing room and eavesdrop on their team talks. When Gary Peters was my manager at Shrewsbury, he once ordered a 3 tonne steamroller to flatten out the pitch at the old Gay Meadow, apparently to nullify MK Dons long ball approach, don't ask me how though. The next little snippet comes from my old team mate, Richard Walker. He was telling me that the night before his Bristol Rovers took on my Shrewsbury team in the play-off final at Wembley, someone kept ringing all of the Bristol players’ rooms and just hanging up, and then at 3 am someone set off the the hotel fire alarms, thus causing a mass evacuation. I wonder who was behind all of this skullduggery?
Talking of under hand tactics, it has emerged this week that the England hotel, oddly enough the same hotel that Bristol Rovers stayed at, was bugged during their last stay. It has often crossed my mind how many managers up and down the country have had their away team dressing room bugged? If I was a manager, I think I would seriously consider employing such a tactic. In doing so, you could be privy to basically every set piece your opponents are going to do, and also listen in on some of the rollicking being handed out. It would be quality to hear someone like Neil Warnock going potty!
Ask Herdy:
Why have we been so consistently inconsistent this season!? from Steve in Aldershot
The million dollar question Steve, your’re probably just as frustrated as me on our performances, one week we are like Brazil, then the next we are more like Bognor Regis! If I am honest, it probably comes down to a bit of naivety, but let's be positive and focus on the good points, If I told you 6-7 years ago that you would be beating the likes of Bradford down at "The Rec," then I am sure you would have been happy.
What was Baschurch like to live in, I'm thinking of moving there, so any thoughts on the local night life, fish and chips shops appreciated! Pete in Shropshire
I hope this isn't Pete Downward, because I was hoping the house prices might go up, but not if you move there! Only kidding, it is a lovely place to live and I really miss living there, the people down at "The Admiral Duncan" are a nice bunch to have a drink with after a match and the "New Inn" restaurant is a nice setting to have a decent meal. If you are going to the fish and chip shop, make sure you take your mortgage broker because they charge a fortune!
What superstitions do you have?
I don't really, except I always use the same urinal prior to kick off, some of the lads must think I am some kind of weirdo when I am waiting for them to finish when the urinal next to them is free!
Who is your favourite current and past player? Darren in London
Steven Gerrard and David Ginola.
If you could be invisible for the day, what would you get up to!? Ian in Shrewsbury
Go perving!! Oh...and change my tax records!!
Please send any questions to askherdy@bigtips.co.uk that you'd like posing to Ben and we'll feature the answers in future articles.
Posted: Friday, March 12th, 2010 @ 10:03 pm by Ben Herd
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