Belper Town & Me with Adam Taylor

Adam is known as @40yardheader and known throughout the East Midland's non league scene as well as being a huge Belper Town fan. In this blog I ask Adam about his love for Belper Town and everything that comes with supporting a football team. 

Who/what got you into Belper Town?

My dad took me to my first game in 1984. Former Derby County striker Kevin Hector was playing for Belper that season and they won the league. I’m not sure what I enjoyed most, the game or listening to people swearing.

 

What are your earliest memories of Belper Town?

I grew up quite close to the ground, I can see my old bedroom window from the stand, and I used to be able to hear the shouting from matches from my back garden. I can remember going down for the first time and seeing Kevin Hector play, but it was a couple of seasons later when I started going to most of the games. All the kids watching used to go on the pitch at half time for a kickabout, someone would be putting crosses in while twenty of us would try to head the ball past whoever had been made to go in goal.

 

Best Belper Town game you’ve been to?

The most memorable would have to be the FA Vase semi-final second leg away at Oxford City in 1995. We narrowly missed out on a trip to Wembley despite taking an early lead. I remember going into a pub near the ground before the game and it was completely full of Belper fans and it was total chaos. The chaos carried on inside the ground but thankfully there was no real trouble. I remember a portaloo getting tipped over with someone inside it and everybody waiting to see who climbed out of it. I saw who tipped it over but I’m not going to tell tales.

 

Is there any good stories following Belper Town on or off the pitch?

Me and mate once had a two pint half time and while we were still in the clubhouse we missed a tannoy announcement to say that the next game, an away match at Stocksbridge had been postponed. This was before the days of social media so the first we knew about it was when we arrived at Stocksbridge’s ground at 2:30 the following Saturday.

One that made me laugh afterwards was a Tuesday night at Witton Albion during our FA Cup run a couple of seasons ago. I’d started work at 7:00 that morning and driven up on my own and was feeling a bit tired for the drive home so I got a coffee before extra time started and stuck milk and about five sugars in it to wake me up. I was just about to stir it when a bloke told me he’d got my coffee and I’d got his Bovril. We swapped back then went in opposite directions, so I never got to ask him what Bovril with milk and five sugars is like.

 

 What’s been the worst moment following Belper Town & why?

Losing 7-0 at Buxton in the FA Cup a couple of years ago was bad, our keeper got injured in the warm up so the goalkeeping coach went in nets. I think he was probably the last to say, “bagsy not in nets”.

The 5-0 home defeat against Warrington Rylands this season was a tough watch as well because it felt like the players had given up. Later it turned out that Ross Durrant had played for about an hour with a broken ankle.

If you could go back & be in attendance for 1 game in Belper Town history. What would it be?

That’s an easy one. I couldn’t go to the Notts County FA Cup game because it was my son’s birthday party so while 1400 Belper fans were going crazy when Danny Gordon gave us the lead, I was playing crazy golf with a bunch of nine year olds while trying to keep an eye on Twitter to see what was happening at Meadow Lane. I did win at crazy golf though.

I’d like to have been at the first league game after the club reformed in 1952 as well. The players got changed in a pub and walked to the ground that season, the following season they bought some old pigsties which were next to the ground and converted them into changing rooms.

What a ground

All time favourite player & cult hero?

There are a few contenders over the years. There are a couple of my mates who are going to have a go at me for not saying Mick Hoskins but the player I’ve probably enjoyed watching the most over the years was Brendan Morgan. He was a proper pacey winger which seems to have become a lost art with modern formations and one of those players you look forward to watching play. 

Adam, you’re involved with the Belper Club shop and have some of the most imaginative club merchandise you see in non league, alongside some of the best matchday posters you’ll see. Does having original ideas for merch and promotion give you pride when you see fans flocking to invest in your ideas and help the club? 

There aren’t really many original ideas, I just steal stuff from popular culture and put a Belper Town twist on it. I do like having stuff for sale that other teams don’t have. When I first got involved the club was already doing well with all the usual scarves and replica shirts and stuff. I started selling Dark Side of the Mill and Belper Calling T shirts and badges and when they started selling well it seemed to increase the sales of all the other stuff. I knew bobble hats and bucket hats would sell well but they sold even better than I expected. I sell quite a bit of stuff to away fans and groundhoppers as well because it’s a bit different, nobody comes to a game expecting to leave with a Belper Town Cool as F*** fridge magnet. One thing I used to do which I might have to bring back is the Big Badge Bagsy. I’ve got my own badge press so I used to come up with a one-off badge design, make a few and then give them to the first people to bagsy them on Twitter. The best bit was telling people they couldn’t have one because they hadn’t followed the correct bagsy rules. I won’t be truly happy though until I’ve got some commemorative tea towels for sale, everybody loves a commemorative tea towel don’t they?

I can’t take the credit for the match posters anymore, I started them off, but a very clever chap called Andy Hunt does them all now. My only input is to annoy him by suggesting trivial minor alterations from time to time. He was horrified when I told him I’d done the Dark Side of The Mill design on Microsoft Paint, so I thought I’d leave it in the hands of a real expert from then on. I didn’t realise at the time but Leek Town were doing a similar sort of thing before I started doing it. A lot my poster designs got used for T shirts and badges as well.

Adam in full club shop action

 

Dinner party. You and 4 guests dead or alive connected to Belper Town?

The first invite would go to Rex Barker who sadly passed away last week so I could get a chance to thank him for everything he’s done for the club over the years. He used to go round with the raffle from as long back as I can remember then he’s been on the turnstiles for the last few years. You can’t underestimate the importance of volunteers at this level of football. Players and managers come and go but it’s people like Rex who keep clubs like Belper Town going.

The next invite would go to Mick Lakin. He’s the club’s record all-time goalscorer and I’d love to hear the stories from the fifties and sixties and find out what the players I’ve read about when writing programme articles were like off the pitch as well as on it.

I’d also have to invite Kevin Hector. Not only did he win the league with Belper Town but also won the league with Derby under Brian Clough and played in the North American Soccer League which has always interested me.

Finally, probably I’d have to invite Riece Bertram. Partly because he scored the goal that won us the play-off final at Chasetown last season but also because if he was there then there would be no chance of any awkward silences.

 

Best all time Belper Town 11 you’ve seen play? (in a 4-4-2)

I worked weekends for twelve years so didn’t get to many games during that time so there will be some players people will find it hard to believe I’ve left out. Based on players I was able to watch regularly though I would go for the following:

Aaron Chapman, Craig Smithurst, Mick Hoskins, Danny South, Steve Kennedy, Craig Weston, Brendan Morgan, Lee Stevenson, Rob Wetton, Jon Froggatt, Andy Womble.

I’d be the manager; we haven’t had a single manager in all the time I’ve been watching Belper Town who’s done a better job than I could do.

 

What makes Belper Town so special to you?

It’s the first place I watched a football match and without a doubt has the best backdrop in football. You can’t beat hearing the start of Waterfall by The Stone Roses (the first proper band I ever saw live) while the teams come out, then the bells of Christchurch striking three as the music fades. The Belper fans are amazing as well. If you see a post from anybody on social media saying they’re having a rough time you can guarantee the replies will be full of Nailers fans making sure they’re OK. There’s also a lady who sometimes brings me cakes so what more could you want from a football club?

 

Thank you to Adam   

 

If you’re reading this and would like to feature to speak about the club you support. Just drop me a message on Twitter @PL2NL and I would love to have you on and hear about your club

 

Until the next one.

 

Peace

 

Luke @PL2NL