Welcome to the Hertford blog.

As some of you may know I’m an avid Tottenham Hotspur fan, I go to games regularly and watch them on the telly as often as I can.  Last season was a real high point for me and thousands of other Spurs supporters across the country.  We qualified for the first time in the Champions League and had a real chance for possibly winning silverware including the coveted Premier League.  It was a season of highs and lows which saw us reach the giddy heights of the quarter finals in Europe and battle for 4th spot right down to the last few games.  But as always Spurs have a tendency to let themselves down and we ended up finishing a disappointing 5th and failed to qualify for the Champions League.

When you pay nearly £50 for a ticket against newly promoted Blackpool it’s time to wise up and realise that there’s a hotbed of football more locally to watch and enjoy.

Yes!  I’m talking about Hertford Town FC!  We have a fantastic local team who are in their own premier league – The Spartan South Midlands Premier League.  When professional football came about over 100 years ago it was all about the community that the team came from.  Players were local lads, supporters came from the same town or city and the owner of the club was inevitably a rich local businessman who done good and had the clubs and communities interests at heart.  Somewhere along the line top professional clubs lost that core attribute and now we have mega clubs with foreign overpaid stars, supporters from the other side of the world and billionaires who own the club and load it with debt.

This is fine, it has made our league the most exciting to watch, but what I’m talking about is where has the community aspect gone?  There is none.

For the community feel in a football club, one needs to look further down the divisions, and we have a brilliant community football club right here in Hertford.  They play in Hertford , have players from Hertford and are chaired by a local businessman.  It’s so refreshing to see and it really takes football back to its core, the game itself.  There’s no needing to book tickets online, you can go along to half a dozen games for cheaper than most premier league single fixtures, the games are always exciting affairs, you can walk down and even have a beer afterwards without needing to rush out to beat the queues and you can actually feel like you’re being part of the community.

The season for Hertford Town FC kicks off on the 4th of August against St Margaretsbury in the Herts Charity Shield and you watch the game at Hertford Town FCs ground, Hertingfordbury Park.  Over time the full list of fixtures will appear both on the clubs website and right here on thebestof Hertford.

So come down to Hertingfordbury Park this season and follow Hertford Town FC to watch real football without the glitz and glamour that brings nothing but extra cost to your back pocket.  Visit Hertford’s website here, and visit the fixture list on thebestof Hertford by clicking here.