Shrewsbury set the standard when it comes to working with the community, says Ben Herd.

English Football League / Ben Herd / 02 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Shrewsbury's right-back on marking Marlon Harewood, losing at poker, Grant Holt's dress sense and Van Persie's "Hammer" blow on Man City.

Last week the whole team went paintballing on a bit of a team bonding afternoon.

Activities like these are really good for breaking up the routine of training and a change of scenery can always freshen things up a little. As for the paintballing itself, well let's just say there were a few 007 wannabes!

There was one instance where me and Chrissy Humphrey were deserted by our team and took one mighty pummelling! But few things in the last few years have had me laughing more than Paul Murray's commando approach to the afternoon - he was more like bloody Rambo!

This week we had a practice match at Wolves' training ground on Tuesday afternoon. Instinctively, I thought we would be up against a reserve Wolves side but it turned out to be their first team, barring a few of their lads absent on international duty.

I was playing centre-half and found myself up against one of the biggest players I have ever come across, Marlon Harewood...not much chance of winning a header there then!

We lost 4-1 and usually that scoreline indicates a bit of a battering, but in actual fact we more than held our own for the majority of the game. It made me realise how playing in these games is much more beneficial than a normal training session: the tempo, work rate and concentration levels required are much more intense than we usually endure in League Two.

I must admit that these kind of games against much higher calibre teams do inspire me (and I am sure it's the same with the other lads) to play as far up the football pyramid as possible. If I never get the chance to play for a Championship club, not to mention a Premier League club, I'd at least like to play against guys who do play at that level.

We've reached the time of the season where the annual football awards are up for grabs. I was watching the Football League Awards on Sky the other night and it was pleasing to see the club pick up a gong for League 2 Family Club of the Year. I have stressed before how important it is to be working in tandem with the local community and I'd encourage a lot more clubs to take a look at Shrewsbury's approach.

Big congratulations should also go out to my team-mate, Grant Holt, who picked up the League Two Player of the Year award. Holty arrived at Town in the summer with a relatively big price tag around his neck, £170k, and I think he even found it a slight burden initially but to be fair to him he did his very best not to show it.

He's scored over 25 goals this season so in many ways he has repaid the transfer fee already. In all honesty, it probably won't be the last award that Holty wins this season - lets just hope that he changes his 80s style suit that he wore to the Football League Awards or people will stop handing them out to him just so they can be spared the sight of his fashion sense!

Another good example of team bonding is when players get together outside of the club and convene for social activities. A few of the older lads have started playing Scrabble on the team bus and, by all accounts, the makers of the Oxford English Dictionary should come down and watch because apparently there has been a few new words introduced to our language by some of the lads!

The other night a few of the local lads came round mine for a bit of a fun poker night. It's a good chance to relax, have a laugh and a bit of banter with each other; this week's bet (see below) better be good as I'll have to make up for my losses! Even in games like that, it must be bred into footballers to do everything to win and I must admit that I was gutted to have lost to an old team-mate, Gavin Cadwallader. Don't think I'll be inviting him again!

One player I wouldn't want to be given the task of marking in a training match, much less a real match, is Robin van Persie. Although it pains me to say it, van Persie must have one of the sweetest left foots in the Premier League. His trademark thunderbolt free-kicks remind me of Jorge Albertz, aka The Hammer, who used to smash set-pieces in for Rangers in the 90s. Have a look if you need a reminder of what that left foot was capable of - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V51IzMuTlpg.

Van Persie revealed this week that he almost joined Rangers before moving to the Gooners. In a day and age when attacking left-footed players are a dying breed, Arsene Wenger must be applauded for spotting the potential in the young van Persie. For me , the only thing missing if he's to become a real world-class is to cut out some of the petulance that creeps into his game from time to time.

Arsenal take on Man City this weekend and the truth is that the travelling done by Elano and Robinho this week won't have too much of a detrimental effect because they don't seem to turn up when City play away anyway. This is almost a case of a license to print money: back Arsenal at [1.57]. I also can't see City scoring, especially if Bellamy's not in contention, so also back an Arsenal clean sheet at around [2.14].