During his nine years at Hartlepool United, Chief Executive Russ Green has been willing to turn his hand to anything.

He has fixed shelves, laid carpets, cut the grass on the pitch at Victoria Park, served food in the catering cabin - and even sold Pool flags outside Asda ahead of a Play-Off Final.

Green said: "People say to me, 'You wouldn't see Peter Kenyon at Chelsea doing that'.

"At a club like ours we don't sit in ivory towers. We all pitch in and help. My philosophy is, 'Don't ask anybody to do a job you wouldn't do yourself'.

"Jeff Stelling once wrote in his newspaper column that I was the most unlikely Chief Executive you could ever come across. I was on my back fixing shelves when I first met him!"

Green believes it is important to lead from the front at a club where average attendances are around the 6,000-mark - and where your neighbours are Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

He said: "I look at ourselves as a bit of a Burnley. The town of Hartlepool revolves around the football club.

"We are on a peninsula, and surrounded by sea on three sides. It is a close-knit place, brought up on the fishing industry, and very passionate about football.

"I see it as part and parcel of my job - and an enjoyable part - to maintain close links with the community.

"When we got to the Play-Off Final in 2004, we only had a small club shop and were taking 22,000 fans to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

"We had to sell 22,000 items of memorabilia, so rather than just sell in the shop a few of us went out every day from 8.30am to 7pm to stand outside Asda and sell the stuff."

The former sports retailer, who worked in the industry for 20 years, is well suited to the role of chief executive at the Coca-Cola League 1 outfit.

Green said: "It is such a diverse job, not just about sorting out players' contracts, which is what everybody sees as the Chief Executive's role.

"Looking after the finances takes up a chunk of my time but motivating everybody else is a huge part of my job.

"I have a small backroom staff of 22 - so my office is always open. There should be a turnstile on the entrance rather than a door.

"More people go through it than they do through the gates on a Saturday!"

During the close season, Green is concentrating on the club becoming a 365-day-a-year operation.

He said: "Times are changing. Who would have thought 10 years ago we would have a classroom in the football club where the kids come in and learn about diets?

"We also have pensioners' nights and, on Mondays, we have a single parent dads' morning.

"There is something going on here all day, every day.

"Everybody in the town is predominantly a Hartlepool fan and the stadium is the hub of the community."

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