On Any Given Monday

James Forryan travels to the home of Burgess Hill Town FC to meet The Monday Club – a band of unsung heroes playing a vital role in ensuring that everything runs smoothly behind the scenes of this grassroots football club.

It’s shortly after 9:00 am on a damp Monday morning when I arrive at Leylands Park, and there’s already a man up a ladder, carefully removing the letters spelling ‘St Albans City’, their most recent visitors, from the fixture board overlooking the main entrance.

A quick glance at the result, which displays 1-0 victory for their opponents, and it becomes clear why this particular task has been given priority. “Probably best forgotten about,” joked Dave Bradbury, the club’s general manager.

Still, despite this weekend’s setback, the recently- promoted club remain in eighth place in the Isthmian Premier League, and there’s a palpably upbeat mood about the place as Dave leads me out of the clubhouse and down the touchline of their newly installed 3G pitch to meet the man I’m here to see – former player Tommy Manneh. Tommy is best known locally as the man who scored a famous winning goal

for the club in a 1981 FA Cup tie against Crawley Town, but these days his role is behind the scenes, organising the ever-growing group of volunteers affectionately referred to as The Monday Club.

“It started out as a WhatsApp group with three people”, Tommy explained, “and now there’s somewhere between 20 and 30 of us.” A group comprising local residents and club supporters, many of whom are retirees, canbe found every Monday morning busying themselves around the ground, doing everything from litter picking to replacing light bulbs. This morning’s list of tasks for these volunteers

includes mending a gate that has been knocked off its hinges by some overly exuberant fans.

“There’s someone you should meet,”said Tommy, leading me toward an elderly gentleman brandishing a litter-picker. “This is John Buck, otherwise known as Mr Burgess Hill.” Besides Tommy, John is the only other former player among The Monday Club’s ranks, and he’s been coming here every day for over 70 years. “I first played for Burgess Hill Town in 1948,” John told me. “He’s 93”, added Tommy. “I prefer to say I’m in my 94th year,” John retorted with a grin,“it allows me to play the age card.” The other man Tommyis keen to introduce me to is John Goss, the club’s vice- president, known as ‘The Can Man’ because of hisrole collecting all the empty cans discarded by fans and recycling them, raising over £6,000 for charity in the process. “I’m up to about 780,000 cans so far,” he told me. “I said I’d stop when I get to a million.”

With the morning’s chores completed, the group assembles in the clubhouse for tea and biscuits and there’s a tangible sense of camaraderie amongst the volunteers. They’ll need it, because there’s another game tomorrow night and when the final whistle is blown, and the fans have departed, they’ll be back to do it all over again.

Burgess Hill Town FC Medical Travel Compared Stadium, Maple Drive, Burgess Hill RH15 8AQ www.bhtfc.co.uk