Club Focus: Basford United

By Matt Badcock, 
Basford United’s pitch didn’t even have railings around it when Chris Munroe played for them.
“When I came in, and I’m not joking, we were probably being watched by 25 and that’s including people with dogs,” Munroe, who had a spell when he left school and then before finishing playing, tells The NLP.
But Munroe had a vision for the club and when he became manager in 2005 he made a promise: the journey starts now.
“When I was appointed manager in 2005, the first thing I said to the guys when I came in is, ‘We’re going to take this club on a real journey’,” Munroe says.
“I always wanted to get into Step 4, which was the Evo-Stik South, but as the journey progressed and we had a lot of success, the ambition increased as we kept moving up the leagues. Now we’re here, just one below the National League North which is incredible really.
“It was just an open field in 2005, there wasn’t even a barrier around the pitch – just a common, open field. Now it’s totally different. It’s really exciting.
“It was my first club in men’s football and then I went on my way. Then the last club I played for was Basford, then I took the manager’s jersey, the chairman’s jersey, then I bought into the club, took major shareholding ownership…and the rest is history really.”
Since Munroe took the Nottingham club on in 2011, that history has been packed full of silverware and promotions, which have come under boss Martin Carruthers.
A striker who had a successful playing career that started at Aston Villa and took in Stoke City, Peterborough United, Darlington, Southend United, Scunthorpe and Lincoln City, Carruthers had left his job as player-manager at Arnold Town.
Aged 38 he was persuaded to pull his boots on for another season – 30 goals and a league and cup double later saw him carry on before taking the management job at the then-East Midlands Counties League side in November 2013.
“I was packing in completely,” says Carruthers, who is assisted by Mark Clifford. “But Basford then persuaded me to come and play so I thought I’d have another season. We got promoted and I thought I’d have another one. The rest is history really but back then you couldn’t have foreseen what was coming.
“The chairman always spoke about his ambitions to get it up but until it actually happens you don’t realise the dream. Now it is reality it’s onwards and upwards. It’s just so exciting to see where we can actually go from here.”
Munroe, who sold a successful packaging business, has invested a figure that is rising towards £2m.
But it’s not been about simply throwing cash at the first team to get them up the ladder. Instead he has focused on the community and the infrastructure. The ground is transformed.
Focused
Where railings once never stood, a facility with a 4G pitch, new changing rooms, terracing and stands now proudly stands fit for their first season at Step 3.
Notts County use it as their training ground and Basford have their own academy and education programme.
“Our approach is totally different,” Munroe says about building the base to go forward. “We actually go slightly the other way. We focus more on the community because we know the benefits will get to the first team.
“It’s not just from playing as well. We now get a lot of parents of players coming on match days so as the ground gets fuller the atmosphere is better which helps us in many ways.
“So we’re community focused. I’m a football person, this is my passion. I like the fact the community is involved and on a week we’ve got 500 people using the facility as well as the first team.
“It’s a great story and gives a lot of satisfaction because, to be honest, we’re keeping youngsters off the streets.
“We’re an inner city postcode of Nottingham. Unfortunately Nottingham has had a few problems with crime and we know for a fact we’ve helped a few lads who have gone off the rails by football.
“We’ve got close links with the authorities and the police, to give us a lot of activities aimed at that side as well – which you can when you’ve got an artificial pitch because you can use it as much you need it. Football breaks down barriers, it’s fantastic.”
Former Coalville Town boss Tommy Brookbanks has recently arrived as vice-chairman and is charged with building the club’s commercial side, while Carruthers is now full-time with part of his job description to oversee the academy alongside striker Liam Hearn, who banged in 39 goals last season as they romped to the NPL Division One South title.
They want to produce their own players and develop those released by the professional clubs in their area. Kole Lambert, picked up from Notts County, featured in pre-season aged 17, scoring a screamer at Brighouse and Munroe says 18 scholars have played for the team in recent seasons.
But allied to that is the desire to get results. Over the years, Carruthers has drawn talent to the club including former Aston Villa and England midfielder Lee Hendrie, who helped them win the Midland League alongside the likes of Burton Albion legend Aaron Webster. Last year, their third season at Step 4, they set off like a train and were never caught to reach the NPL Premier. Carruthers has set the standards from the word go.
Professionalism
“From day one it was that professionalism,” he says. “Turning up on time for training, little things. There was a big influx of new players and doing things how I wanted. Sometimes it can backfire on you but as a manager you have to be ruthless, you’re not here to make mates you’re here to win games of football.”
Professionalism has stepped up again this season. As well as ice baths, improved post-match food and recovery drinks, Carruthers’ attention to detail runs so deep that he will even have the air conditioning turned up on the coach before they arrive at an away ground to make sure the squad are alert.
“Last year you’d speak to a few managers – your Scarboroughs, Hydes, South Shields, Alvechurchs were all using video analysis,” he says. “At this level every team is using it, every team will be having ice baths, eating right.
“So how do you get the best out of your players? We’re trying one or two different things that will give us the edge over our opponents. There’s always ways to improve and train differently to get the most of out of your players.
“And this is where man-management is critical so if you have teams of similar ability you can still win games of football.”
Although their Step 3 openers against Hyde and Hednesford United ended in defeat, optimism is high they can consolidate if not more this season.
Speculative
Munroe is realistic, the Football League is an aim but he knows that will take time.
“We’ve had to transform a County level football club and a County level facility – even at Step 4 the demands of the ground are massive compared to what we were at,” he says. “Then obviously on the pitch we’ve had to transform it.
But we’ve had a plan, we knew what we wanted to do and we’ve just knocked them off in stages. We focus on the one ahead and then move on again.
“Our ground has a state-of-the-art 4G surface, it’s one of the best in the country and it suits us because we are a nice passing team.
“But the actual ground itself is a nice little stadia now. When we put the 4G down we took the opportunity to regenerate it all. We redid all the terracing, the seated stand, safe walkways – turn it into a basis for progression.
“We got the capacity up to 1,900 and now we have plans for another three stands we’d like to bring in in the next two years to take the capacity up to 3,000 and beyond.
“Because, as a chairman, now I’m starting to think about FA Cup runs and things like that – I know it’s speculative but you have to be ready.”