Taking your chance with a short career

English Football League / Ben Herd / 13 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

Shrewsbury Town's Ben Herd says the rise of Joe Hart gives hope to lower division players and tips his ex-team mate to be busy this weekend.

It's funny because I don't think anyone - especially not my Dad - said to me when I was small: "You're good at football". It was just something I enjoyed and when I look back, that's probably the best way to start.

Dad's not the sort of person to give out praise lightly. He encouraged my twin brother Tom and I to play - and that was handy, because there was a ready-made goalkeeper to practise against.

The school I went to, in St. Albans, didn't do football at all. It was American-owned so they were big into basketball and the other main sport was rugby, for some reason. But that didn't stop me enjoying football. I played for St. Albans City youth team Sunday side when I was little. It was great fun.

I was spotted by a Watford scout when I was eight years old. Four of us from St. Albans went there but we lost two pretty quickly and the other lad, Chris Seeby, left at about 15. He was at St. Albans City in the Conference South until recently.

I was lucky where I lived. We had a small garden but there was a massive field over the back. Me and Tom just used to hop over our fence and smash a ball about all evening. Tom still plays for a Sunday team and five-a-side in the week. He could have made a decent non-league player but drink and women took over too soon!

I don't think I really stopped and thought hard about taking my YTS offer when I was 16. It was a school where most of the boys stayed on to do their 'A' levels and I was being told by all the teachers how it wouldn't work out for me. It sounds like a stereotypical story, I know, but they really were against me trying to make it, so that probably spurred me on.

I took nine GCSEs and passed seven, so I kind of knew if my scholarship didn't work out, I at least would have something to fall back on.

It's strange thinking back to those days - they seem a million years ago even though they're only recent history in terms of my life.

People already ask me now what I'm thinking of doing after I retire. I don't know, perhaps I look old, but I'm focusing on building a career by doing my absolute best at Shrewsbury Town.

I've seen and heard enough stories of lads not even making it in the game past 18, so I want to make the absolute maximum of it.

I knew what I wanted to do, even back then. And when I see lads going off to uni to study chocolate or David Beckham, I think I'm doing okay. I've always wanted to see how far I could get with what ability I had and my positive approach to my work.

I'm not being stupid about the future, though. I've always put some money by from what I've earned and I've got a couple of pension schemes running, including the PFA one which is good.

My girlfriend's parents were charging me hardly anything to stay with them when I was at Watford, so I put quite a bit into my savings back then. I'm pleased I did, because it's not long into your career that you realise how short it is and how you've got to take your chance when it comes.

One player who's done that from our place is Joe Hart, our goalkeeper who went to Manchester City and has already played for England.

It's a great boost for the club to see Joe going on to bigger things and it genuinely does get you thinking that there are people watching every week. Someone who really was playing at the same level as me week in, week out, has made it, so to speak. It also proves that the art of taking a chance on a lower-divisions player isn't dead.

And there's a few more lads at the club who could go on, I reckon. There's a young right-winger here at the moment, Chris Humphrey who's come from West Brom. His game has really come on and I think there'll be a few clubs interested in him.

No disrespect to Shrewsbury at all, but there's not a footballer around who doesn't dream of playing in the Premiership. I'm not saying that's necessarily going to happen to me, but by aiming that high I know it can help keep me focused on my game.

So having given Joe a really good plug, I can see him being busy at Villa this weekend. I'm suggesting laying Manchester City at [4.3] because they might just hold on for a goalless draw...and that would keep Joe happy.