Latest news with #RealBedford
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Norwich Women look for Carrow Road springboard
Norwich City Women are hoping that a return to Carrow Road for their final league game of the season can be a springboard for a strong promotion push next Cook's side are second in the table ahead of the game against Queen's Park Rangers on 27 April, but cannot catch champions Real Bedford, no matter what result they have won their last six in a row in WNL Division One South East, but a run of three successive defeats in November and December undermined their hopes of success this season."The turnaround we've had since Christmas is like an achievement in itself. Obviously, we wanted that promotion but sometimes it doesn't go your way," midfielder Eloise Morran told BBC Radio Norfolk."We've finished this season really strong and we've got the game to go to really end it on a high note."It's really encouraging for next season. We've been through the experience of having a rough patch. As a squad, there's a lot of youngsters in it and we are learning so much about how we can bounce back as quickly as possible from setbacks."They appeared at Carrow Road for the first time in April 2023 after becoming fully integrated with Norwich City FC the previous year, and league games against QPR and Cambridge United were played there last the team's only appearance at Carrow Road so far in 2024-25 was for a WNL Cup game against Ipswich Town, from a level higher up the women's pyramid, which they lost 4-0."These are the games you live for. We've had some amazing attendances in the past and hopefully we'll get that again this time," said Scotland Under-19 international Morran. "There's nothing like the feeling of the crowd behind you when we score, you feel like everyone is with you and the support is immense. "I don't think there will be anyone in our squad who is not desperate to score at Carrow Road but at the end of the day, we want it more for the team." Norwich drew both league games this season against Real Bedford - the club backed by bitcoin investors the Winkelvoss twins. Moran added: "The performances we've put up against them have been really good. We've shown there's no reason we can't compete at that level, if not higher. "One of the big things we've taken this year is game by game, everyone focuses on the final destination but it is really a journey, it's a long old season and you've got to be consistent throughout. "There's been a lot of takeaways from this season which will hopefully help us for next year."Following the match against QPR later this month, Norwich will return to Carrow Road in May to take on Mulbarton Wanderers in the County Cup final.
BBC News
14-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Real Bedford men and women promoted in same weekend
Real Bedford are celebrating a double promotion while talks continue about a possible merger with the town's other Southern League men's team clinched the Division One Central title with a 1-0 home win over Kings Langley on Saturday, courtesy of Joe Evans' first-half game was watched by cryptocurrency investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who have invested about £3.6m in the on Sunday, the women's team secured promotion from WNL Division One South East with an emphatic 11-1 win over London Seaward as Sofia Stovold and Abbie Bensted both scored hat-tricks. Owner Peter McCormack bought the former Bedford FC in 2021 and changed the name to Real Bedford at the end of that wants the town to have a club in the English Football League, and ultimately the Premier men's team have now won three successive promotions under boss Rob Sinclair, but which league they will play in next season is still up in the air as talks about a possible merger with Bedford Town who were originally founded in 1908, are currently three points clear, external at the top of Southern League Premier Central, the division Real would most likely be in next season if they did not become a single told BBC Sport on Monday that there was nothing new on the merger following Saturday's win, he said: "You create a project, you say you want to get a team in the Football League, and you know you've got to do six promotions - that was the goal."To do three back to back is incredible, quite overwhelming. But then it's 'OK, how do we do a fourth?'" The bitcoin podcaster told the club's social media channels he was delighted to have the Winkelvoss twins among the 1,426 crowd at the Eyrie."For them to see us win a championship, see what it means for the town, for the people and be part of the moment, it helps them understand it," he said."When they're in America and I'm explaining it, they kind of get it but when you're here and experience it, you know what it's about. It's going to help getting them more embedded in the project."It was announced last week that the first Universal theme park in the UK is to be built on the site of a former brickworks near Bedford and McCormack believes it has the chance to be the fastest growing town in the country."It's just a very cool time to be a Bedfordian," he added.
BBC News
31-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Real Bedford owner invests in his hometown and football club
A football club owner says investing in his hometown's high street could be the "blueprint" for other towns. Peter McCormack, "a proud Bedfordian", and chairman of non-league Real Bedford, has just opened Real Coffee, in the heart of the said Bedford, close to where Universal Studios could be built, was a "good investment" and he was "putting my time where my mouth is" and doing his bit to raise the area up. "If people are coming into the town and spending money, I will open other businesses and other people will," he said. Mr McCormack, who is hoping his club will merge with Bedford Town FC, has already persuaded Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to invest $4.5m in Bitcoin (about £3.6m) in his team and become said Bedford was like many other places affected by the opening of retail parks and the expansion of supermarkets."I hope it's the start of me creating more business in the town, whether that is Real branded or independent businesses I set up," he said. "I see the town centre as a good investment opportunity," he said. "Town centres need rethinking and in redesigning town centres we can create new businesses locally which means money stays locally."He also has his eyes set on the town's currently empty Debenhams store, purchased by Bedford Borough Council for £1.8m. "It should have high quality flats above and build a hub for families to be entertained and where they can get food and drink." If Universal Studios goes ahead, he can see it acting as a regeneration project for Bedford. "If you want Bedford to be better you have to play a part otherwise you have no argument."It might be coming into the town once a week more than you do, buying a cup of coffee, having a mooch around the shops, buying a card, getting your hair cut. "Every time you spend money in the town centre that might be paying for some kid's ballet lessons or another kid's football boots."He also hopes to see a "café culture" in Silver Street with more restaurants and bars opening with people coming out in the evening. "We can do this, and just raise the town up, and if we get this right, if enough people help and my thesis is right, this could be the blueprint for other towns." What do shoppers think? Laura and Jonathan Cook, a married couple, live 15 minutes away from the town in Keysoe. They believe the opening of any new business was "fantastic"."A lot of people diss Bedford and run it down. We're the opposite, we've been here for five years and we love it," Mrs Cook said. "There's nice parts and not so nice parts, but if you demolish the past and look to the future - you need to invest in small business."Mr Cook said: "For someone to say I'm a business man, I want to to invest in Bedford, is great for Bedford, there's great potential here. "It's a great place to invest in right now, with everything that's going on in the future, we need people to come into Bedford and visit more." Richard Tattle, from Bedford, thought the opening of the new business was "good news" and he was pleased there were plans to improve and change the town. "If you look at the High Street it's disappointing the number of empty shops there are, so people who are taking things and redeveloping things can only be good for the town," he added. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The tiny English football club about to have its shot at stardom thanks to two American billionaires
Opposition players don't exactly receive a warm welcome when they line up to play Real Bedford. At the Ledger Stadium (more a ground with two dozen seats under a cover), the tunnel (more a short corridor in the prefab clubhouse) from the changing rooms is painted jet black, with baleful graffiti scrawled over the top in blood red, ultraviolet paint. In the hours leading up to kick off, the whole thing vibrates with heavy metal music turned up to 11. Bobbing his head to the screams, the club chairman and co-owner, Peter McCormack, grins widely. 'Bit different, innit?' he yells. On the wall behind him, a Rage Against the Machine lyric catches the eye: 'WE DON'T NEED THE KEY, WE'LL BREAK IN!' Welcome, then, to the most eccentric football club in Britain. They won't be for everyone, but then again, which team is? It's a nippy Tuesday evening under the lights. Real Bedford – that's 'Real' pronounced the Spanish way – are currently top of the eighth-tier Southern League Division One Central, and the visitors tonight, poor old Aylesbury United, shouldn't trouble them. 'Oh, we're expected to win,' McCormack says. 'This is actually a rematch, when we first played them we had a floodlight failure when we were 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go. You get 15 minutes to put them back on or the game has to be abandoned.' Just five years ago, Bedford FC, as it was known, was a barely-existent football club in the tenth tier of English football. A few dozen people turned up to matches, the club's turnover was meagre and the coffers were empty. McCormack then bought it, changed the name and branding, including making Real Bedford 'the world's first Bitcoin club', and last week finalised an investment deal to the tune of £3.6 million – the largest ever in non-league football – from US twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency billionaires perhaps best known for founding an antecedent to Facebook. 'One of them, I'm pretty sure it was Tyler, originally said he wants me to get the club in the Premier League,' McCormack, 46, says. That's the long-term goal. The medium-term goal is to get into the Football League – meaning the three divisions below the Championship – within a decade. The short term goal is to be promoted at the end of this season for a record-equalling third consecutive year. And the very short term goal is to beat Aylesbury tonight. Ultimately, any goals would do. Real Bedford is a curious story, and one the gregarious and elaborately tattooed McCormack enjoys telling. Like all promising follies, it begins with the words 'what happened was, I got divorced'. To offer the short version, McCormack, born and raised in Bedford, was once in advertising, took a year off to care for his unwell mother, then decided to start a podcast about Bitcoin. He started becoming interested in the cryptocurrency as an ad-man, 'when I was buying cocaine on the internet'. But that's enough about that – 'I haven't done drugs in over a decade, [using Bitcoin] was just the safest way to get it.' McCormack is a football fan, and 'always wondered why we didn't have a team here in Bedford that was in the Football League'. He dreamed of seeing people in the local club's scarves and shirts streaming through town on a Saturday, and having a little local pride through sport. Having made decent money from investments and his podcast, in 2021 he tried to buy the historic Bedford Town FC but was turned away. Fortunately he had other options close by. Specifically, 25 metres across the carpark from where Bedford Town FC play. There, Bedford FC was based. 'I've never disclosed how much I paid, but it wasn't a lot,' he says, sitting in a store room full of training equipment at the clubhouse. Understandably, there was always confusion between the two Bedford clubs, so he set about changing the identity of his new venture. 'I was in Miami at the time and watching David Beckham's Inter Miami. I liked what he'd done there, so I came up with Real Bedford. I thought it was kind of funny and people won't forget it.' He made the shirts a lairy marmalade orange, introduced heavy metal aesthetics wherever he could, and made the club's new nickname 'The Pirates' – a moniker reflecting the skull and crossbones iconography McCormack already favoured. Bedford is around 95 miles from the sea. He may mean online pirating. Are they plundering the rich? 'Well, we never actually thought of ourselves as The Pirates, that was a former player, then the players started singing pirate songs on a social. So we said, OK, we're The Pirates. But look at me, I've got a skull tattooed on my hands, they're up my arms…' They also became the crypto club. Where you'd normally see a club's founding date on its badge, Real Bedford's has the words 'est. block 712003' – the first Real Bedford trace on the blockchain. Much of the club's money is held in Bitcoin. You can buy anything, even a Bovril in the clubhouse, using it. 'I thought if I made us 'the Bitcoin team' it'd enable us to create a commercial model. The only difference between being a tier 10 team and getting up to the Premier League is having the money and infrastructure to do it. Football is simply a business.' McCormack has the gift of the gab, but he's also clearly a very shrewd businessman, prodigious fundraiser and surprisingly – to some – sensible about the investment he does get. Thanks to his own money, various sponsorships he's attracted from crypto and other tech companies, and the Winklevoss cash (which was actually paid in Bitcoin), Real Bedford is now sitting on a kitty of £6 million. 'I consider that money a slush fund. The first season we were profitable, the second season we were profitable, this year we'll lose a bit of money because we've had a lot of costs.' Among those was the establishment of an instantly successful women's side.' Then next season if we want to get promoted again, the cost of player recruitment will probably be ahead of what our turnover will be,' he says. 'So I can look at that and say, 'Well, OK, maybe we will lose £200-300,000 next year to get promotion, but let's do it because we have 6 million on our balance sheet. It's like a start-up.' With half an hour until kick-off, the clubhouse is starting to fill with fans of all ages and genders. Pints are poured, tea's served, hot dogs are consumed. McCormack, who greets every fan personally, and delivers food and drink stock, or whatever is required, in his blacked-out Range Rover, is on hand to press the flesh. His chairman's letter in the matchday programme is always worth a read. In December, the FA fined him £30 for 'improper conduct' after it noticed a photo of him brandishing a rifle had accompanied the letter in every programme for months. He has now replaced it with a mocked up photograph of him at the controls of a tank. 'Ridiculous,' McCormack says. 'They said I was making guns look cool. But guns are cool. It's shooting people that's not.' One thing we must understand, he says, is that the Winklevoss situation is not like the glorious rags-to-riches transformation of Wrexham AFC, where Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are both co-owners and the face of the operation. McCormack, the home-grown everyman, is very much the face. He's also the engine. The Winklevoss twins would be colourful faces, mind. Once Olympic rowers, in 2004 they sued Mark Zuckerberg, receiving $65 million as a settlement, in a case that formed the basis of the David Fincher film The Social Networ k. They've since gone on to become billionaires anyway, largely thanks to founding their own cryptocurrency exchange, Gemini. It's now a sponsor of Real Bedford. McCormack met the twins five years ago through his Bitcoin podcast, which they also sponsor. Later, over drinks in Miami, he wooed them by explaining the elaborate, aspirational nature of the English football pyramid – anathema to Americans, whose professional sport is notoriously lacking in jeopardy. He told them he planned to buy his local club and, using Bitcoin, get them to climb the leagues towards playing clubs even the Winklevosses might have heard of. They agreed to become a sponsor, then gave McCormack a couple of years to get the hang of it, before agreeing to invest big last year. Not that a few million is a huge risk: each twin is worth around £2.1 billion. Their accountants may not have even noticed yet. Engineer manager Craig Barton, 41, drives 10 minutes down the road to every single Real Bedford match, home and away, usually with his 11-year-old son, Archie. 'It's decent football, good to watch. I'll be honest, I don't know a lot about Bitcoin, but the branding… who doesn't like a pirate? I think it's great, it attracts attention. The formula without the investment was there, we're doing well, but the funding just helps us progress quicker. And it's got to be good for the town as well.' It's very much a family affair: McCormack's 20-year-old son, Connor, is his vice-chairman; his brother, Neil, is the club secretary; their dad's the kit man. The CEO, Emma Firman, grew up with McCormack. Her son, Seb Hendrix, is the media officer. Fans' teenage kids work behind the bar. A clique of opposition fans gravitate to a corner, looking on enviously. 'That's the best thing about the club: the community we bring, the journey everyone's coming on. It's great to see old faces, new faces, people want to come and support a team that's winning, that's up-and-coming. It's what I love about it, at any age, everyone's generous,' Firman, 44, says. As kick-off nears, we make the short walk to the pitch, where perhaps 150 people have come out to watch. The Ledger Stadium is hemmed on one side by one of the largest abattoirs in the UK, and on another by the A421, which connects Bedford to the rest of the country. Are they heading for the slaughter, or going places? The answer might lie in what happens with their other neighbours. McCormack is in advanced talks to merge Real Bedford with Bedford Town FC, who play in the division above. 'We're the two closest clubs in the country, with similar ambitions. Only one club, I think, will be able to make that, and it'll become a war of attrition. Our balance sheet says we're in a healthier position to do this.' Bedford Town, who know they cannot compete with the crypto cash or McCormack's sheer verve, have accepted his offer, meaning the two could be one club as early as next year following formal merger talks, which are currently underway having opened last month. As the teams arrive, McCormack stands next to a speaker and uses his phone to play a sea shanty at full blare. 'Cos we're The Pirates!' he shouts to me, beer in hand. Fans, huddling against the barrier as the temperature plummets, bellow their support as the referee's whistle blows. Within minutes, Aylesbury go ahead. Bedford – sorry, Real – pull one back. Aylesbury score on the break again. The rest of the first half is a cagey, muddy affair. 'You've f------ jinxed us!' McCormack yells in my direction at half time. But he remains confident. He always remains confident. 'Pass and move, pass and move, it's fantastic football down here,' says Phil Janes, 58, a commercial director for a local construction company. He's swathed in Real Bedford merchandise. 'Pete's a local lad, I really like his style. So we've switched allegiances. 'I've lived in Bedford for 30-odd years and it's just lovely to see someone who wants local stuff improved. He's trying to help people out, people fulfill their dreams. I don't know anything about Bitcoin or this big investment, but it's a bit of fun for some decent football. Pete's got a passion, got a plan, he wants to go places.' In the end, the home side come from behind twice to beat Aylesbury 3-2. The march to a third promotion beats on, and McCormack hasn't even touched the Winklevoss millions yet. But in Bedford, the real revolution's still to come. 'A lot of people say, 'What's the scam here? What's the scam you're playing?' There is no scam. We're working all day every day to do everything we can to make this football club a success. But because they don't understand Bitcoin, they think something weird's going on,' McCormack says. On the gates at the Ledger Stadium is a hand-painted sign: 'THIS HOUSE BELIEVES'. And nobody more than the chairman. 'I'm proud to be from Bedford. We're essentially a nothing town. Why would you come to Bedford normally?' That grin again. 'Now, we have two billionaires who've invested in the local football club. There's a reason for people to visit the town.'
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘He treated us like idiots': the crypto mogul and a bitter battle over Bedford's football clubs
In the shadow of one of the UK's largest abattoirs, a heady concoction of anger and apprehension hangs uneasily as a warning is delivered to those who fear their football club's fate echoing that of the animals over the road. 'I fully appreciate there is a lot of passion running around the room tonight,' announces the evening's master of ceremonies. 'If there is any personal abuse, anything that is not tolerated, you will be warned, and we do have Tony and the team here to remove you if necessary.' Standing by the entrance door, two burly men in black overalls and security armbands give a nod. 'Please remember to keep yourself dignified,' reiterates the host. With every seat occupied inside the Bedford Town clubhouse, supporters line the walls, seeking answers at this specially arranged fans' forum. Most are regulars, some for decades, colouring the room with the club's distinctive royal blue worn as a pointedly outward display of devotion. Scattered among them are a handful of Real Bedford diehards, identifiable by the club's yellow and black paraphernalia on this foray across enemy lines. Bedford Town, known as the Eagles, have been playing at the Eyrie since 1993. Given the animosity between the two clubs' supporters, on any other occasion the interlopers might be described as brave or foolish. But tonight foes have been brought together to hear the prospect of not only becoming friends but being adopted into the same family; two football clubs – unthinkably, in the eyes of many in attendance – merging into one, an initiative driven by Real Bedford's co-owner and chairman, Peter McCormack. For more than a century, Bedford Town have been the town's dominant non-league force. Not even the incomparably close proximity of Real Bedford's various predecessors prompted much concern. Since moving to their neighbouring sites on the town's eastern outskirts three decades ago, with a shared fence and single line of trees separating their respective corner flags by barely 20 metres, natural sporting hierarchy dictated the two sides coexisted peacefully, largely occupying different footballing spheres. Then McCormack's grand plans changed everything. Bedford Town club memorabilia shows a prestigious history, including from when they took Arsenal to a replay in the third round of the FA Cup in 1956. It is a couple of weeks before the fans' forum, and there is a hum of excitement in the Real Bedford clubhouse, where mismatched furniture evokes a ramshackle church function room. There are two hours until table- topping Real Bedford kick off against Leverstock Green and the sound of heavy metal in the changing rooms provides a raucous backdrop to the hive of pre-match activity. The entrance to Real Bedford's Ledger Stadium is just behind one of the stands of Bedford Town. News of the potential merger between Bedford's top two clubs has only recently emerged, hastily announced ahead of schedule after rumours began circulating. For fans of Real Bedford – a baby compared with their Bedford Town great-grandparent next door – there is general enthusiasm at the opportunity that lies ahead. A black 4x4 pulls up and McCormack starts unloading crates of beer. An unexpected bumper crowd for the win over their title rivals Berkhamsted a few days earlier means the bar has run dry. McCormack's official title is club chair but, frankly, he is Real Bedford. His black Rage Against the Machine hoodie helps explain the heavy metal in the clubhouse, the club's skull and crossbones logo, and their Pirates nickname. Real Bedford were founded in 2002 after a merger between Bedford United and US Valerio. McCormack is part of non-league football's new wave which includes increasing numbers of celebrities, entrepreneurs, social media gurus and foreign investors throwing their weight – and cash – behind clubs. The catalyst for many was the success of the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who have helped take Wrexham from the National League to the verge of the Championship, injecting some rarely seen glamour into the lower reaches of England's football pyramid. Attendances in non-league's top four tiers have risen more than three-quarters over the past decade. Unlike his Hollywood counterparts, McCormack is local, Bedford born and bred. By his own admission he 'knew nothing about non-league football' until this project. A university dropout – 'the course was rubbish' – he worked as an advertising executive before launching and hosting a popular bitcoin podcast having first encountered the cryptocurrency to buy recreational drugs online, inauspicious beginnings that he is understandably keen on consigning to history. His success allowed him to make a recent pivot as a counterculture interviewer. 'I'm someone who dislikes authority,' he says. 'I'm not a royalist, I hate the government, I hate bureaucracy.' It also provided a platform and the financial means to attempt an ambitious quest to buy a local club and take them into the Football League. 'I thought: 'I'm in this bitcoin world, why don't I make us this freedom and liberty bitcoin club?'' he says. 'A little bit punk, a little bit anarchist. We're going to have a 'fuck you' attitude. It's natural for me.' Back then, in 2022, a team known only as Bedford – by far the smaller of the two clubs on the Meadow Lane site – were in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One, the 10th tier. The view towards the pitch with the dual carriageway of the A421 in the background. Peter McCormack (right), the chairman of Real Bedford, congratulates his manager Rob Sinclair after the 3-1 victory over Enfield. (Right) The Real Bedford trophy cabinet. McCormack bought them and immediately added Real to their name, a decision that cost him £1,000 when he belatedly learned he would need to buy it off the local organiser of a Sunday League team who played under the name. 'Obviously I didn't make out how big a deal it was because he could have rinsed me,' McCormack says with a laugh. 'If he'd said £10,000 I'd have had to do it.' The club's badge features the bitcoin logo alongside the words 'est. block 712003' in place of the usual founding date, marking the first Real Bedford trace on the blockchain. The triumphs – on-field and financial – have been instant. The club made £500,000 in sponsorship last year, including a five-year shirt deal with the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini worth an annual £100,000. Approaching the end of their second successive promotion early last year, McCormack secured a £3.6m investment – the largest ever in non-league football – from the Winklevoss twins, founders of a forerunner to Facebook and cryptocurrency billionaires. 'Thankfully, my co-owners are worth 10 or 20 times what they [Reynolds and McElhenney] are,' McCormack says. Lee Watkins, the Real Bedford captain, chats to friends after the Southern League Division One Central match between Real Bedford and Enfield at the Ledger Stadium. Top of the tier-eight Southern League Division One Central, Real Bedford have already made serious headway into McCormack's stated aim of the men's team joining the Football League within a decade – although the American brothers have tasked him with reaching the Premier League – and the women's (who are undefeated in the fourth tier) playing in the Championship within five years. 'Our club is unstoppable with what we want to do,' he says. Back at the fans' forum, as the crowd waits, the two clubs' owners ready themselves in the adjoining directors' suite, where sepia-toned highlights of Bedford Town's past adorn the walls. A programme recalls their 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the 1956 FA Cup third round, a few years before they beat Newcastle United 2-1 in the same competition. It is this history that Bedford Town fans dread may be lost, part of the reason why the club's primary owner, Jon Taylor, sent McCormack packing when he tried to buy them three years ago. Taylor's personal connection runs deep. A former Bedford Town reserves player, he was first-team manager when he bought the club with his father, David, in 2018. A year later, David collapsed and died in the club car park. For McCormack, it made perfect sense to target the region's biggest non-league club, a side who were about to gain promotion to the seventh tier, watched by more than double the next highest average attendance in the division. 'I sat in the meeting and it was absolutely incredible,' the former Bedford Town chairman Mike John says. 'He [McCormack] just treated us like idiots. He said he didn't want anyone connected with the club to be involved if he bought it: 'I don't want your expertise or knowledge of the game. I know it all.'' Relations further soured when McCormack instead bought the neighbouring club and launched Real Bedford. Looking back, McCormack understands Taylor's rejection: 'I sounded like a fucking idiot, and Jon, rightly, thought I was an idiot.' The Bedford Town director Jon Taylor (glasses on head), watches the match against Kettering. Taylor, a quietly spoken figure, publicly uses the terms 'raw', 'fractious' and 'annoyed' to describe a situation that left him significantly unhappier in private. It became unpleasant and personal, particularly online. If the merger is approved, and legalities confirmed by the deadline at the end of March, McCormack will become the owner and chairman of the club, some of whose fans were dishing out that abuse. McCormack says of once referring to Bedford Town as a 'shithouse club': 'I had two years of being harassed online, people lying about me, making accusations about me. All I've ever tried to do is good stuff for Bedford. If people are going to be a shithouse to me, I'm going to stand by that statement.' For Taylor, and his fellow shareholders, the decision to accept McCormack's latest offer is driven in part by proof of his capabilities next door, in part because of increased financial demands they suggest they cannot meet, and in part by fear of what might become of their club if, or when, Real Bedford surpass them. Their push for promotion to the National League North or South belies a meagre wage budget that is about half their division's average. The increased travel costs of a higher tier could be disastrous. 'We're honest enough to say that the money we've put into the club is as far as we can go,' Taylor's co-owner Ben Banks tells the assembled supporters. 'This is sleepless nights for the people sitting up here. Trying to make the right decision to make everyone happy and have everyone onboard is a very, very big burden to bear.' Which leaves McCormack, a figure of contempt to many in the room, facing the unenviable task of attempting to bridge a yawning divide. It will be too vast for some. Amid sincere talk of respecting Bedford Town's 'rich history' and both clubs making necessary compromises, he admits he will lose fans. 'So be it. I can't bring everyone along. I will have to make decisions that will upset people.' His grand ambition for the town is bigger than either individual club. 'I am unapologetic about wanting to make Bedford a better place,' he says, pointing to numerous philanthropic schemes he has launched through Real Bedford. A few weeks earlier James Edmunds, while setting up the Bedford Town Supporters' Club tea hut for the last home game before the emergence of the potential merger, had flippantly pretended to spit on the floor at mention of their noisy neighbours. 'They are probably the Man City of this level,' he says. 'Objectively, they should be successful. But if the price of having that here is that it's no longer Bedford Town, the badge has changed, the colours have changed, it would be a different club, it's not worth it.' As he speaks, the Real Bedford skull and crossbones flag flies conspicuously just beyond the perimeter fence. Next season, that barrier will likely be gone, Bedford's awkward unification ushering in a non-league football revolution.
