Ben Herd / Ben Herd / 21 October 2009 / Leave a comment

After a busy week for Aldershot Town's Ben Herd, he managed to catch up with Bury's influential goalkeeper, Wayne Brown.

"Players that are still here from last season remember how much it hurt losing in the play-offs, so hopefully we can use that experience in a positive manner this season and really push on for promotion."

Well, it's been a long week since I last wrote this column. Firstly, our manager, Gary Waddock, and his assistant, Martin Kuhl, leave the club for pastures new at Wycombe Wanderers and within two days we have a new management team, Jason Dodd and Paul Williams. I wish Gary and Martin all the best in their challenge in keeping Wycombe up. Since I came to the club, both of them have been first class to me and I can say that, all though it was a short spell, Gary Waddock was the best manager that I have come across in my career and I believe he will eventually end up managing at a higher level. As for Saturday, the 2-3 defeat to Bury was a massive disappointment and one that we will have to put right against my old team, Shrewsbury, on Saturday. As always, I managed to catch a word with Bury's MOM for betting.betfair.com, goalkeeper Wayne Brown, who also saved a Marvin Morgan Penalty.

What did you think of Saturday's game? Did Alan Knill change his approach after Aldershot changed management teams?

I thought that it was a good game for the neutral, lots of action in both penalty boxes and goals galore. Aldershot was like the "Red Arrows" in the first half, flying about everywhere. In fairness, Aldershot should have killed us off with the amount of decent chances they had. It was a case of me wearing my "tin hat" on Saturday with the amount of work I got through. In fairness, we kept plugging away and took our chances when they arose. Our manager did not even mention the fact that Aldershot had changed manager and was very much a case of business as usual.

Do you have any targets for the season?

Promotion. Simple as that really, after only missing out on automatic promotion by one goal last season. Players that are still here from last season remember how much it hurt losing in the play-offs, so hopefully we can use that experience in a positive manner this season and really push on for promotion.

Are there any good young players at Bury worth keeping an eye on?

I think Mike Jones is a decent player, he is currently playing on the right of our midfield, but his best position is probably as an old fashioned "number 10". He is still only 21, and his delivery from set-pieces is very good and that is very important if he wants to play at a higher level.

When you look back at your career, are there any "if only I had done that", or "if only I had gone there" questions?

I don't really have any regrets, but there was a time when I was at Chester and W.B.A had come in for me for £300k. The Chester City chairman at the time was an American, who had just come over to this country and I think he thought League 2 was the bloody Premier League because he was demanding £1 million from W.B.A for me, cheers.

What career will you pursue after Football?

I want to be a Photographer - no Herdy not a top shelf one, a sports photographer. Some of the lads say that when I make some saves they are for the cameras anyway so I should be quite good at it!


Football

Favourite Premier League Player? Cesc Fabregas
Favourite player outside the Premier League? Brian Barry-Murphy
Manager you'd most like to work under? No one!
Club you'd most like to play for? Southampton

Best mate at the club? Neil Cutler (Goalkeeping Coach)
Messiest eater? Efe Sodje
Biggest ladies man? Paul Scott
Who's best at putting away the pints? No one drinks here!

Non-football

Dream date? Katherine Jenkins
Favourite TV programme? Entourage
Favourite shop? Greggs
Worst vice? Eating Chocolate
Biggest pet hate? Big time Charlies

50/50

Meat or fish? Fish
Wine or beer? Wine
Blondes or brunettes? Brunettes
"Friends" or "The Office"? Friends
PS3 or newspaper? Newspaper
Frank Sinatra or Fifty Cent? Frank Sinatra

Tags: Aldershot Town, Ben Herd, Bury., Shrewsbury, Wayne Brown, Wycombe Wanderers