Welcome back to another TTTONLF meets, now this actually came about after I watched a day in the life video by Henry he posted a week or so ago now. I am a massive fan of everything that Dorking and Marc White has done and continues to do so wanted to speak to someone who is helping with that great work behind the scenes.
Anyway….thats enough from me, lets get stuck into it and find out a little more about Henry and the work he is doing at Dorking Wanderers.
Name – Henry Bennett
Age – 18
Favourite team – Watford
Occupation – Media Assistant & Programme Editor at Dorking Wanderers.
Thing I love about football – The people, doesn’t matter who it is, the fans in the stand to the people behind the scenes, everyone in football is vital to someone, somewhere.
Football pet hate – Referee’s that referee the scoreline. Especially when you’re 2-0 and you’re cruising to a comfortable win. That annoys me way too much than it should.
Q) What made you want to pursue a career in football?
I think the fact I’m basically surrounded by it anyways made it a no brainer to go into the football industry. I live just half an hour away from Vicarage Road and I’ve been a season ticket holder for almost ten years, so watching football has been consistent with me for the same time period. I love the game, I love everything about it and it doesn’t matter what level I’m watching I will find a way to enjoy it. At the moment it now takes up basically six days of my week, as I’m studying a football journalism degree on a Monday, Tuesday & Thursday, work in the industry on a Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday and then play on a Sunday morning. I couldn’t imagine a career in any other industry, you’d have to drag me away from football very forcefully to make me change it!
Q) Is it what you expected?
Yes, absolutely. No day is the same, it varies day to day and so when I first set my expectations to go and become a sports journalist, I knew it would be challenging & it’s incredibly tough to do some of the stuff that me and the lads do on a matchday at Dorking every week. You need to be ahead of everyone on the pitch & you need to be prepared for every scenario, whether that be with graphics, match reports, live updates, you have to adjust to whatever happens. Even with the results, when you do post match interviews and you’re on the receiving end of a 3-0 defeat for example it’s so hard to try and squeeze what you need out of the players. Even despite all of that, it’s so rewarding when everything goes to plan, so although I expected what I do to not come easy, I still have loads of fun doing it.
Q) Why Dorking?
For me, Dorking stood out as an opportunity which I basically couldn’t turn down. Our university has a website which allows us to apply for loads of jobs which are exclusive to our students only, and when it came up all my mates were jeering me on to go for it, so it came through that. They didn’t get back to me for a while but then I got an email from Ollie who’s our head of media, and after sitting on a forty five minute zoom call with him explaining what he wanted from me, I knew straight away this was where I wanted to be. It’s made me appreciate even more that non-league football is one of the best things in the country right now.
Q) What challenges do you face in the role you hold?
Challenges are mainly that for me it’s a new environment, and I’m really bad with names so for a bit I struggled settling in but now that’s over I’m great friends with a load of the team. I think also as well this is something I’m not used to, I did bits of work experience at Bromley & Stevenage before landing the role but nothing in the capacity that I do now, on a matchday there are lots of deadlines and meeting all of them at once can be tough but we get it done. The commute for me is also quite bad, I live two hours from Dorking so sometimes I get to and from games quite late, for example midweek games I don’t get home until quarter past midnight, then I need to be up at 7am the next day. The commute does give me a good chance to work on my pre-match notes and any prep I need to do beforehand though, but compared to some of the boys who live just a twenty minute drive away, it’s a lot harder for me.
Q) What is it like working alongside the likes of Marc White and the awesome team at Bunch of Amateurs?
It’s amazing! I’ll be honest, I sometimes forget that the BOA cameras are there now I’ve gotten so used to them because they just become part of the matchday routine. Although, Rich does show us up with all his fancy gear whilst we go over to the dugouts to do our matchday interview with just a tripod with two phones on. Marc however is fantastic, he’s just a regular bloke who manages a football club on the side. He’s so transparent with everything as well, he won’t ever lie to the camera and he says it how it is. He’s a media’s dream, he has time for all the interviews whether it’s to 50 followers or to the 200,000 people who are subscribed to watch the videos every Sunday evening. I think he’s what football is about, and there needs to be more people in the game like him!
Q) Is there any crossover between you at the BOA team or do you operate very separately?
A little bit, there isn’t much though. We’re all friends though, and we all know each other by name because we all know we’re there to do the same job, just in a different capacity. Sometimes we’ll share footage with them if they need to but they hardly ever ask for it, they conduct their own post & pre-match interviews with their own gear, and usually they bring more cameramen than us to a matchday. We leave them to it because they know what they’re doing, but we love Rich and the team, they’re one of us, and they always will be.
Q) How important are matchday programmes in your opinion?
I think they’re very important and a lot more important to non-league teams especially. You need to remember whatever money non-leagues clubs can get, they will take with both hands and snatch at it. Our programmes are another way we can do that, but for this year we’ve taken a new approach. Since I joined the team, we now work on a monthly programme instead of a per-match basis, like what a few clubs do, where we produce a programme or a magazine that can be bought at every home game during that month. The feedback’s been really good, fans like the writing and they prefer it to the old format, it also means we can squeeze more content in. They are as valuable to a fan as a pre-match pint & a pie, it’s a part of football, and it needs to stay in a print format as long as it can. Keep the longevity and the history, it’s good for the sport.
Q) What’s the piece of work you have carried out to date that you are most proud of?
It’s a tough one! I think March’s programme will probably be my favourite piece I’ve produced for the club. We looked back on last month and we looked at areas where we can improve the writing and we did, so we’re constantly looking to improve everything. My appearances in The Non-League Paper are also up there with some of my favourite pieces, all three of the times I’ve been in there, it’s been with the Wanderers (even before I started working there!) so I’ve definitely made a lot of memories already with them.
Q) What would you say to someone looking to get involved in football media at a club?
Just write or produce content. It literally doesn’t matter what it’s on, if you can get a laptop or if you can pick up your phone and just write an article or make a 45 second TikTok literally talking about whatever you want, that is experience. I started through my own little page on Medium, before then I got picked up by a big EFL website because of what I was doing. The more you do, the more you can add to your CV, and if you’re doing that at let’s say 15 or 16, you’re already halfway to what I’m doing. Don’t be afraid to send emails to your local club too, because more often than not they’ll say yes if it’s in non-league. Take small steps, and most importantly have fun doing it!
Q) What’s the dream for you, one club legend or do you have aspirations of other things in the future?
One club legend does sound incredibly tempting but I’ll leave that for Marc, for me I think Dorking is just the start of what I’m gonna do in my career. I’d love to stay at a position like this though, I’m far more suited for it and the environment when you work for a football club is so much better than being a freelance journalist in my opinion.
Wearing the badge of any football club on your chest makes it so much more worthwhile, it feels like you’re part of their brand, their family, that community. That’s why I love it at Dorking, it’s special here, but the dream for me is to be the head of media at a top level European football club. I’ve always had a huge soft spot for West Ham United through my grandad, but anything like that I’d take with open arms.
If you want proper ambition though, what about something like Manchester City? I’m gonna work as hard as I can to make it happen, but the real work begins now.
Q) Why should someone come and watch a game at the Meadowbank?
In Marc’s words “When the Wanderers come knocking, you come coming”.
There is so much more t0 the club than just the cameras and the manager though, the football is first class for the level and the attacking football that you see is what you want to watch week in week out. It’s incredible, and I think if you haven’t been here, you need to! Especially before the ground get’s all the new changes, because we’re going to be transforming the facility into a ground ready for the EFL soon. It’s a hidden gem of non-league, and for me it’s unique like every football ground is. It’s an atmosphere like no other whether that be with the diehard fans and the groundhoppers.
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Wow!
Personally I found it quite inspiring to read and a helpful insight into the real world of being a media assistant. it is a job that is for many football fans and lovers the dream. And whilst it does include all of that and more, as described by Henry above. It does however not come free of charge, the huge commitment required of your time and the amount of travel can be quite overwhelming and should not be underestimated when looking at the role.
But….what a role to have and as Henry described you get to experience things you could never imagine being involved in, it’s hard work but all of the best things in life normally are!
Thank you Henry for your time, keep up the good work .
Until next time!
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