I got involved with Emley AFC first of all by writing a book about the club’s NCEL championship-winning season in 2023/24. Doing that helped me understand a little bit how the club ticked, and as a semi-retired person I realised I had the time to get involved in a hands-on way. So early last season I joined the famous Tuesday Club, a friendly group of volunteers which does both everyday and extraordinary things at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground.

My jobs tend towards the mundane, cleaning and vacuuming the dressing rooms and the bar following a match and helping to empty the many rubbish bins which are all around the site.

The other Tuesday Club guys sort out litter picking, the hospitality areas, the toilets and any maintenance and repair work, but we all muck in where needed. Maybe new advertising boards need to go up, the bins need washing or it’s time to give the terracing a good sweep. I should mention that ex-chairman Nigel Wakefield tackles the toilets. I’m at least two promotions off that!

The club got its name many years ago and is now something of a misnomer as we go up to the ground as and when we’re required. This summer we’ve been up there rather a lot, helping with an ambitious programme of improvements masterminded by vice-chairman Marcus Pound.

In the two months between Emley AFC’s cruel play-off defeat at Dunston on 29 April and the club’s exhilarating pre-season victory over Huddersfield Town on 28 June, the Welfare Ground was a daily hive of activity with Marcus’s RMP Groundcare team working flat out in all areas, the pitch undergoing treatment, contractors on site most days, delivery drivers constantly coming and going and Tuesday Club members and other volunteers regularly in attendance. So what exactly was happening? I caught up with Marcus for a chat.

HOSPITALITY

Last year, Marcus and the Emley AFC board identified a need for an increased hospitality offering at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground and Marcus’s partner, Becky Longstaff took on the role of Hospitality & Retail Manager. In the first instance the cricket pavilion adjacent to the ground was brought into use for this purpose. But this was always intended to be a temporary arrangement, an experimental trial period if you like.

Marcus said: ‘We still had the option of using the pavilion going forward but it’s next door, just a little bit isolated, and we thought it would be so much better if people were looked after somewhere actually in the ground, and even able to look out of the window straight onto the pitch to watch the game from inside should they so wish.

‘So our first priority was to use modular buildings to create two units behind the goal at the Warburton End, each accommodating 12 to 15 people. I was fortunate to source them just outside the village on Emley Moor from an old contact of mine, Steve Burt, who was extremely helpful.

My initial idea was to convert shipping containers because I’ve got them in my yard and at other sites and I’m familiar with them, but Steve said he could offer me something better, something already insulated and wired to an extent, thereby reducing the amount of work involved and ultimately saving a considerable amount of money.’

This made renovation simpler for Marcus and his team but converting three sound but well-used metal site offices into smart hospitality units still required a good deal of time and effort. Marcus makes the work sound simple and straightforward but, in reality, the many tasks required took vision and organisation, no little skill and a can-do attitude from everyone involved.

Marcus said: ‘Once the season ended we had a short window to get them ready and an even shorter one before that to source them and get them into position. Then we needed to bring the units up to our standards with attention to detail. We cut windows into the two behind the goal so there was a view of the pitch from inside. Cutting out, installing and sealing took a couple of days.’

After this the units were painted inside and out, Marcus himself, hands-on as ever, proving a dab hand with a paintbrush! Meanwhile, his right-hand man Richard Oates tackled an electrical upgrade and overhaul, installing lights, heaters, televisions and power sockets. Finally, carpets were laid, furniture was both obtained and made, and bar fridges were brought in and stocked just in time for the Town game.

‘They’re all fitted out inside,’ said Marcus. ‘Heaters for the winter months, comfortable soft furniture, TVs all ready so guests can catch the football scores, but also so sponsors can run a showreel etc. Our other opportunities around the ground can also be showcased - the 500 Club, player sponsorship and much more. There are also two screens in the new 1903 Platinum Lounge - another little extra for those guys.’

GORDON AND PETER

The two new hospitality units at the Warburton End of the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground are both named after significant figures in the history of Emley AFC. Gordon Adamson was a decorated player and captain before being club secretary for more than forty years, and Peter Maude was was a former chairman who became the club’s president and chairman of the Northern Premier League.

‘They both contributed so much to this club and were a big influence on me,’ explained current Emley AFC vice chairman Marcus Pound.

‘Around 2004 they convinced me to get more involved with the football club and started taking me to events such as NPL open days. At first I felt a little bit uncomfortable. I was only a young man after all. Did I deserve to be there? But Peter Maude said to me: ‘What you have to remember is at a football club everybody’s at the same level. Nobody’s automatically above anyone else and if you remember that and stick to that as a philosophy you’ll do well.’

‘And of course he was absolutely right and that’s why I truly think everyone involved here at Emley is important. Whether you’re the top scorer, the groundsman, the kit man, or the person who empties the bins, everyone’s on the same level. We’re all trying to achieve the same end goal and we’ve all got a part to play in getting there.

‘Gordon was another great man, very much hands on, who for many years gave me nothing but good advice on the day-to-day business of running a football club. And it was actually Gordon and Peter who first showed me how to mark out a football pitch, something I took to, and which was a starting point for me in developing my own business.

‘In fact, it has ended up being quite comical because they could take three days to do a pitch and now I can do it in three hours! But from that you can see the pride and attention to detail they brought to everything they did. They believed in doing things the right way which is still the underlying philosophy of this football club today.’

A huge thank you to Majestic Site Management Ltd for your sponsorship of one of our hospitality suites. ?

We are still looking for a sponsor for the other. Could your business show your support to Emley AFC?

Contact Becky to discuss hospitality and sponsorship opportunities: becky@emleyafc.co.uk

Stay tuned for part 2 of 3.