Ben Herd / Ben Herd / 17 September 2008 / Leave a comment " class="free-bet-btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">Free Bet

Shrewsbury's Ben Herd on winning 7-0 at the weekend, buying himself on Football Manager and getting the run-a-round by David Bentley.

Saturday's game was a whole new experience for me in my professional career - it was the biggest win I've been involved in! For those of you who aren't aware, we beat Gillingham 7-0 (yes, that's right, seven!).

In many ways, it was a bit of a strange game because, believe it or not, we should've been at least a goal down in the first 20 minutes. I think six of our goals came from set pieces, which illustrates the point that set pieces are extremely important at all levels in the modern game.

You would think that being 4-0 up at half time, the Gaffer would be ecstatic and not have a great deal to say. However, he demanded that the game was far from over as a contest and that it was an excellent opportunity to really go for the jugular.

Often, after such a dominant first half, these games rarely see many more goals, but as a defender, it is just as pleasing to keep a clean sheet. The only other time I've recorded a score line of this margin was back in my school days spending hours playing Championship Manager!

It would be interesting to know just how many hours I've spent in front of a computer screen playing Champ Manager, or, more recently, Football Manager. Just for the record, I would like to say that I've been clean from both of those games for a good year now and still going cold turkey!

I've been frequently asked whether or not I have ever bought myself...if you have seen my stats, then you wouldn't buy me either - although, my personal stats are not very accurate either! I must admit that the technology that goes into these games seems to get more advanced every year. If I was a manager, or chief scout at a club, I think this game might come in handy because it always seems to predict the new wonderkids. Past wonderkids on the game include the likes of David Villa, Sergio Aguero and Anderson, all of whom came from nowhere.

I have been very fortunate so far in my career to have played against and with some top international players whose stats on Football Manager would put my own to shame. I remember my second ever reserve game was against an Arsenal team that consisted of £30 million worth of purchased talent. Needless to say we got spanked 5-0.

Then the following week, I was up against a Champions League winner, Jesper Blomqvist. Being around the same age as David Bentley, it's only natural that our paths would've crossed on a professional level. I would have to say that he is the best player I've ever come across. I remember my old youth team manager, David Hockaday, telling me to go and man mark the Arsenal number 10 - put it this way, by the end of the game, I don't think I touched the ball and was extremely dizzy!

He was doing ridiculous things, such as receiving it off the keeper, dribbling past an entire team and slotting the ball in the back of the net. No wonder he later went on to become a £17 million player.

The biggest star player I ever had the privilege to grace the same field as was probably David Villa, when he played for Real Zaragoza in a pre-season friendly - a team which included Savio, formally of Real Madrid, and Gabriel Milito, now of Barcelona.

Moving on, the best player that I have ever played with is probably a lad I started playing with when I was eight years old, namely Ashley Young. If you'd have told me a few years ago that Youngy would be selected by his piers into the Premiership team of the season 07-08, and a semi-regular in England squads, not to mention a £10 million price tag on his head, I wouldn't have believed you. Not that he wasn't a special talent, just that he was very slight. Testament to himself, he now gives Premiership full-backs the run-around.

West Brom being back in the big time and Birmingham City's relegation back to the Championship sees Aston Villa's only real local derby take place on Sunday and one which I expect to feature none other than...Young himself. Martin O'Neil's side are bang in form and, even thought derbies are usually cagey affairs, I can see this being a high-scoring game. To date my predictions have been stinking but I'm nailing my professional insight to the mast, so stick your hard-earned money on Over 3.5 goals at [3.35].