St George’s Park

Back in 2012 the country was abuzz with the lead-up, action from and the aftermath of the London Olympics. Manchester City were just starting their reign as the team to beat in the English Premier League, Donald Trump was a mere hotelier and golf club owner, while Love Island was but a glimpse into the future.

Back then, the England football team had experienced semi-final

appearances in one World Cup and one European Championship, since football had “come home” 46 years earlier, and the English Ladies were predominately a quarter-final team.

Back then, the doors to St George’s Park, the FA’s National Football Centre, in Burton Upon Trent, opened for the very first time – the ribbon cut by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on October 9.

Now, English football has entered a golden footballing age with the men involved in semi-finals and finals on a much more regular basis – although while the game has knocked on the door, it hasn’t quite come home – and the ladies, now christened Lionesses, have just won the Euros – like the men in 1966, taking Germany to extra time, and winning before the torture of a penalty shootout.

Coincidence? I very much doubt it.

The £105 million St George’s Park Centre boasts state-of-theart facilities throughout – 12 training pitches, with both grass and artificial surfaces, one of which is an exact replica of the surface used at Wembley, and a full-sized indoor pitch.

It also has state-of-the-art hydrotherapy suites, biomechanics and training gyms, video analysis }

} amenities, educational and coaching suites and medical and sport science facilities. Oh yes, there is even a fine hotel to ensure that training camps can be 24-7 experiences without ever leaving the site.

The job of ensuring everyone is welcome to use the facilities, from top international and club teams through to those at all levels of the game, including the various squads in disability categories, is

Head of Grounds Andy Gray, who took over the role two years ago.

“The buzz I get coming through the front gate hasn’t worn off, and I don’t think it ever will,” said

Andy, who moved to St George’s

Park from Southampton FC, where had been for 23 years, the last ten of them as Head of Grounds.

“I had always looked on St George’s

Park as one of the top jobs in the country and although I wasn’t looking to leave Southampton, when the opportunity came up, I thought ‘Why not? It’s something different’. It’s not club football, but it is high profile, working with the national team and as a national football centre.”

Without a stadium there is no match day adrenaline buzz but Andy and his team of 15 don’t miss out, it just comes in a different form.

“We aren’t like Karl (Standley) at Wembley, down the road, so our match day feel is when the senior teams, the England men and women, are here. That’s our match day. It’s the biggest event we can host here – the men at the top of the game, playing for their country and likewise the women.”

That said, St George’s Park, Andy and the team, did get some match day vibes when the FA Disability Cup finals were played in front of BT Sport cameras back in June.

“It was a great chance to showcase what St George’s Park is all about on TV and show the best para teams in the country. We had blind, partially-sighted, wheelchair and amputee teams all playing over the week,” said Andy, who added that trials were also held at the Centre in July for the women’s blind, the deaf, and cerebral palsy teams.

Speaking in pre-season, a time which is particularly busy at St George’s Park, Andy said that, as a football fan, he enjoys seeing the visiting squads who pay to use the facilities.

“We currently have Hertha Berlin here for a 12 day training camp. Last week we had Benfica, two weeks ago we had Reading and Wycombe Wanderers. We also have Real Vallecano and Huddersfield arriving tomorrow, while next week we have Marseille and Real Betis.

“The football fan in me enjoys it because there are players and managers that I know and recognise and I get a buzz from that.”

There is also another benefit because being exposed to so many different training sessions and playing styles means that, should he ever wish to take up coaching, he will have a bank of knowledge at his fingertips. }

But wait. He already has!

“I do coach my daughter’s Under 13 girls’ team back home and I sometimes watch a training session and see a drill that I can take back and implement,” he revealed.

As the team is currently sitting mid-table Division 2, without wishing to be overly unkind, it perhaps suggests that his real skills are in pitch management rather than team management.

Vote of confidence from the Board yet?

“No. Only from myself,” he said candidly.

There is certainly no need for any vote of confidence for the work they are carrying out on the St George’s Park pitches with feedback universally positive.

St George’s Park prides itself on ensuring that players at every level experience the same quality of pitch surface when they visit.

“Every pitch is maintained to the same level, so the main England squads play on the same surfaces as the local community teams which use the facility. The only real difference is that, when the national squads and the bigger professional teams visit, we staff every session, so if the pitch needs watering, we are on hand to do it straight away.”

One of the main projects Andy and the team have carried out in recent months is to improve the infrastructure around pitches eight and nine.

“We have curved them off, fenced them off, put a tarmac road around them and installed ball stop netting and floodlighting on both pitches. They are now much more befitting St George’s Park,” said Andy, adding that, although ten years old, there is nothing that has been introduced in turf technology since then that he feels would add to St George’s Park.

“Grow lights are now being introduced at training grounds but as none of our pitches are in the shade, we are happy with the baby rigs that we have here,” he said, adding that, although he had open invitations to do so, he had yet to visit some of the newer training centres in the country.

“I know Leicester City is under an hour down the road and John (Ledwidge) has said I can drop in any time, and Darren (Baldwin) the same at Spurs, but with the pandemic and clubs operating in bubbles for much of the time I haven’t fitted in the visits yet.”

Andy is an undemonstrative figure, not one to blow his own trumpet and keen to let his work do the talking.

“My stamp on the job so far? I couldn’t honestly tell you what it would be. I don’t like to use the word legacy because it makes you sound a bit of a big head, but I just want to make a difference and I want the person who follows me, whoever and whenever that might

be, to find that I’ve left it in a better place than when I took over.”

He sees a big difference in his current job than his work at Southampton.

“When I took over there was five of us in the team and the club were in League One at the time. We had St Mary’s, but Staplewood was half the size that it is today, we took on a non-league ground for the women’s team and the team had grown from five to 16 people over the time.

“I joined St George’s Park when it was already built, already had a team of 15 and already had ten pitches.”

Some of that original St George’s Park team have moved on, many to promoted posts elsewhere, and while Andy takes not credit for the success of those who have moved on, he is always keen to nuture those in his team.

“Personal progression and supporting over people plays a big part of it for me personally. That is what Dave Roberts did for me all those years ago and it helped me get to where I am now.”

While the Lionesses were based in the south of the country during the recent Euros because the majority of their matches were played in the south, Andy still thinks back fondly to 2021 and the men’s Euros when he was at the epicentre of an England campaign which went right to the final day – indeed for England it could not have extended a minute longer as it concluded with a Wembley final incorporating extra time and penalties.

“I’ll never forget the privilege of being a part of the Euro 20 campaign. When the site was closed down for training no-one was allowed pitchside apart from the players, the coaching staff, a couple of security and then us.

“When I accepted the job one of the things at the forefront of my mine was the Euros. Apart from the World Cup there is nothing bigger and it was absolutely brilliant.”

And when he was not on site, Andy was a television watching fan, just the same as millions of others.

“When we played Germany in the second round, I was watching on the telly, basically hoping that the squad would be back at St George’s Park the next day, because had they lost they would have all gone straight home.

“They did, then the weekend came and they played Ukraine in Rome. Again we hoped that they would be back in on the Sunday morning. And they did, and so on. It was brilliant to be a part of the tournament right through to the end.”

Being the man who was there throughout the tournament he is well placed to answer one of the key questions.

“How much time did they spend practising penalties?”

The answer?

“A fair bit. The penalty spot didn’t look too healthy by the end of the five weeks!”

With the huge part that St George’s Park has played in recent years in the success of all the English teams – including age grade Championship winners – you can be sure that the Centre will continue to play its part and that those penalty spots will continue to take a battering as teams regularly contest the final stages of major tournaments.

Who knows what success the next ten years will bring?