Former Quaker Rob Purdie is aiming to crown his career when he goes to Wembley with Hereford to the FA Vase final on Sunday.

Rob played for Quakers for two seasons, and many fans still respect him for the way he stood by the club during the second administration of 2009, and over the rest of that season he played in a variety of positions throughout the team.

And now many Darlington fans will wish him all the best as he walks on to the Wembley surface on Sunday lunchtime against Morpeth in the FA Vase final.

Rob has been playing regularly for Hereford this season – it’s his fifth spell at the club – and has now made over 300 appearances. But none of those 300 plus has been as important or as prestigious as this one.

“I’m 33 years old, so at my age, I’m hardly going to get another chance to play at Wembley,” he said. “And with us getting promotion, then we’ll be in the Trophy next season, so there’s very little chance of getting to Wembley in that. It will be the last chance I’ll ever have to play there, but I don’t know when it will sink in. Wembley will be the best ground I’ve ever played at.

“We’re confident that we’re going to win, especially as we’ve won our league and two cups. We’re going to have a big following, the FA have told us that 18,000 Hereford fans have bought tickets, and at the moment, that’s 11,000 more than Grimsby have sold for the Trophy final! So it’s going to be a pretty special atmosphere, it means that our fans will be filling a quarter of the stadium on all three tiers.

“Not many people at this level walk out in front of nearly 20,000 of their own fans. All I want now is to score! I’m hoping that we get a penalty – as long as it isn’t in a shootout! We know that we’re going to have a tough game, because Morpeth are from a league that’s had clubs regularly in the final over the last few years.”

It’s only 20 years since that the Bulls played the Quakers in the semi final of the Third Division play offs, with Quakers winning away and at home to clinch a first ever trip to Wembley. Since then, both have had roller coaster existences. They’ve had battles against relegation, lost their Football League places, had ownership issues and in recent years both have had to start again at Step 5.

Rob draws similarities between the current Hereford and Darlington clubs. “Hereford have had really bad owners in recent years, and the club has been messed up. The gates were only about 1,000, and they were struggling to stay in the Conference Premier.

“What happened to the club – being wound up and then reforming in the Midland League at step 5 – is probably the best thing that has ever happened to it.

“The gates have increased enormously since then. Everything is now positive. We’ve played in front of 4,000 people on five or six occasions, and it’s great to be able to win things and look forward to the future. We’ve won promotion to the Southern League and the League Cup.”

He missed out on a Wembley play off final appearance when he was with Quakers in season 2007-08. “We lost to Rochdale in extra time in the League Two play off final, which was heartbreaking at the time because we scored early in the second leg and were two goals up, but they came back and beat us on penalties.

“The following season we would have gone up automatically if it wasn’t for the ten points deduction, and we still thought that we could make up the ten points over the rest of the season and get into the play offs.

“But when we played away at Exeter, we were in the wrong mindset because we thought that we would get paid, and we didn’t. We were in the completely wrong mindset after that, and we had a bad run.”

Despite those bad memories, Rob remembers his two year stay at the Arena when Dave Penney was manager with affection. “I liked playing at Darlington. I played for other clubs, like Shrewsbury and Oldham, but I enjoyed everything about Darlington, and there were some memorable times although it didn’t end very well. They were my second club, behind Hereford.”

[caption id="attachment_22212" align="alignnone" width="300"] Rochdale AFC v Darlington
Rochdales Adam Rundle battles Rob Purdie[/caption]

Rob points out that there is one difference between Hereford and Darlington.

“Hereford supporters don’t own the club like they do at Darlington. The owners of Hereford are just a small group of fans, who each put £50,000 into the club. They know that they won’t get their money back; they don’t have any shares or expect to make a profit.

“The team is composed of local lads, who all want to play for the club. Everybody is in together, and there are no egos in the dressing room. We’re all pretty down-to-earth, and we all want to be there for Hereford. The manager, Peter Beadle, wants to do well for the club just like Martin Gray does at Darlington."