Freebie Friday: How far can you take one club?
Duo to leave Hungerford Town at the end of the season
Welcome to the Freebie Friday, the regular piece for all subscribers to be able to read and share across their social media platforms and hopefully gain a taste for what is behind the paywall.
I came across a statement after last weekend’s games which I had missed that had preceded those games and led to me to this piece of how far can you take a football club?
Hungerford Town are currently run by Patrick and Nicky Chambers who are into their fourth season at Bulpit Lane. They aren’t one of the biggest clubs in the division by either their size, support nor budget but they’ve been laying down a marker to all around them.
Most will know of the burger, the Bulpit Beast, that the club became famous for produced by Nicky in the tea hut that went viral across @FootyScran, Patrick tweeting pics of onion chopping the night before a home game. Indeed that burger I saw meant I had to go and try it for myself, anyone who knows me knows I love a cheeseburger at a game and just over 12 months ago I got my hands on one.
That picture above went nuts on my phone that afternoon on Twitter, reaching over 292,000 tweet impressions at the last count. It’s a burger, a picture of a burger for heavens sake, but this was the impact of Hungerford Town.
I did go back again this season and slayed a Bulpit Beast and there it is below, I’ve never seen anyone complain about them either, just absolute praise across social media.
Now it’s just not the burgers here, I love their ‘4 for a score’ offer to go to a game, that’s £20 for entry, a programme, drink at the bar and either a pie, sausage or the burger with chips, you tell me that isn’t value for money for National League South level, and that applies to visiting fans as well. What you also find is Patrick runs this offer from the gate, how many other club chairmen do you find as your first eyes and warm welcome?
Now then the point to all this is, it’s a great club, a very much community club and well loved but as pointed out in the comments upon their announced departure a gate of 500 is 10% of the population of Hungerford. That’s a lot, in non-league terms, it’s not Swindon or Reading down the road who have tasted Premier League football, it’s Hungerford Town who are doing their best to appeal alongside such bigger clubs, like so many do up and down the country.
I guess you can take it as far as you want, although the further you go the more money you seem to need. Hungerford have done brilliantly the last few seasons to compete against much bigger clubs, there are others of course in different leagues who do the same, but ultimately they pick off your best players and the process has to start again, I imagine that can be quite exhausting at times.
When reading the statement I was a little shocked they were going, but sometimes there is only so far you can take a club on limited resources and not a pot of money to rely on to bail you out or take things further. As again noted in the comments the club is in a lot stronger position than when they arrived and people know who Hungerford Town are.
They are having a tough time on the pitch at the moment but the win last weekend will give them renewed hope of survival, it would be fitting for them to still be a National League South club at the end of April.
What is great though is neither of them are leaving the game, the Chambers are off to Gloucester City, ironically the same team I saw them play against this season in the FA Cup. And in all honesty a move I probably shouldn’t be surprised at.
I had seen weeks previous that Alex Petheram and his co-owner were going to be leaving Gloucester and I knew of the friendship that Alex and Patrick had grown stronger during that null and void time, it seems the perfect fit for them to head there.
Having returned to the city in 2020 in a 4,000 capacity stadium the club hasn’t quite maybe gone as forward as Alex was hoping in the National League North but they are in contention for the play off’s under the guidance of successful manager Steve King and his assistant Junior Lewis who I know fairly well from his Barnet days, it will be interesting to see if they are the management team going forward.
With an average attendance currently of 765 it’s just under double that of Hungerford and there is a chance the sides may meet again in years to come, Gloucester being one of those sides subject to lateral movement when there’s an imbalance of relegated clubs from the top division.
I know they’re not going to be the only ones who find themselves in this situation and nor will they be the last either, year on year the gap financially gets a little wider and even those entering the top division of the National League quickly find out how tough it is and ultimately they either have to box clever or spend just to keep up, it’s a dog eat dog world.
I’m also interested to see how they approach the project as well, a new name for a burger, the same matchday deal or something close? Ideas are possibly endless and working on a higher base of numbers must be quite exciting as well, definitely going to be a watch this space time over the summer.
On the flip side I hope there is someone out there who will be entering the Hungerford Town hot seat, someone who loves to prove people wrong, there’s bound to be that person or persons out there and there’s time to find them too, the timing I think is great for both clubs here.
Feel free to add your similar experiences to the comments section, there’s bound to have been lots of situations like this up and down the country over the years.
Thanks Trev. I have listened to many of the podcasts that the chairman of Hungerford has produced. He and his wife will be an asset to Gloucester and a big loss to Hungerford.