Non-League and Academy football writer

I recently interviewed Kodak (Harrow) FC’s first team manager, Sajad Mohammed, and the club’s secretary, Peter Croffey, before a recent Middlesex County Football League Premier Division fixture, at the Harrow Weald Recreation Ground. Sajad would lead Kodak to their highest ever league finish in senior Saturday football last season (2023/24). And Kodak would also win the Alec Smith Premier Division Cup (for the first time) during the same season. Kodak are an historic club who have been in existence for many, many years, and in recent decades club secretary, Peter Croffey, has played a big part at the club, dedicating a lot of his time to Kodak. Especially with them also taking their first steps into senior Saturday football, of the Middlesex League. It was a privilege to interview both Peter Croffey and Sajad Mohammed, recently. And I wish Kodak, who are a really good club, all the very best for the remainder of what will be a very long and interesting 2024/25 season.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football?

Sajad: I’m obviously still quite young, so my background in football is all quite recent. I’ve played football my whole life. I would later study at Bournemouth University, and I would just continue playing football, and at a little bit of a higher level, in non-League football. After returning to London I would later play for Kodak, as I knew Tony and Zach from the club, as they were my teachers from school. So I did a season with them, which was successful, and then I took over as the first team manager, here at Kodak. I’d already done my coaching badges when I was 16, because I knew that coaching was something that I always wanted to get into.

Peter: I’m actually not a great lover of football, if the truth to be told I’m a rugby man. I only got involved in football because my son didn’t get into his rugby team, and so he wanted to play football. So at the old Kodak, when my son was eight (26 years ago) he joined the club. I started there as a parent, and I would later help to restart the Kodak youth set-up. I ran a team for ten years, before then getting involved/being asked to help out collecting money, and so I became the treasurer of the club. I would replace Bob Langley, who was Kodak’s secretary for 30 odd years, and so once he left, I took over that role. And I’ve been here ever since.

What are some of your standout footballing memories (so far) since being involved with Kodak (Harrow) FC?

Sajad: So last season was the most successful in Kodak’s (senior men’s team) history, as we finished with our highest ever points tally and position in the Middlesex Premier Division table. That is something that I’m obviously really proud of, and on top of that obviously winning the league cup was a real highlight, but they are the main highlights. Maybe from a selfish point of view for my own development, I know that elsewhere I wouldn’t have got the chance/opportunity to have so much responsibility as a coach, other than here at Kodak.

Peter: Two promotions with the youth team is definitely a big standout memory for me. Also, all of the cup finals are clearly standout memories, such as the county cup final, division one cup final and the premier division cup final (2023/24 season), are definitely highlights. Taking the Kodak youth teams to France, was also a highlight. We used to take an Under 10s and Under 13s football team to Doue (our twin town) for a tournament, for ten years. But we played as Harrow, in conjunction with Harrow in Europe, in that tournament. The last time that we were in that tournament, we actually won it. But that tournament was a great experience for those youth players, to play tournament football out in France. The French players always thought that they were playing the England team, because we always had the charter standard badge on, with the three lions on it.

After having already played one league match in the Middlesex Premier Division, what are some of your thoughts and hopes for Kodak (Harrow), regarding the 2024/25 season?

Sajad: I’ve got one main goal, to be honest with you. And that is for us to win the league. That would obviously complete the cycle, and just tick every box of achievements with the club. Of course we’ll also be looking to do well in the cups, and that is always a bonus. But if someone was to ask me what I’d like the most for this season, then it would be to win the league.

Peter: I think to maintain or at least improve on last season, that would be great. Also, a county cup win would be nice! Although that is a much bigger thing than the league. But I just want the lads to enjoy the season.

What were some of your thoughts on last season (2023/24) for Kodak (Harrow) FC?

Peter: It was a good season, all in all. It was a shame that some of the league games towards the end of last season weren’t played, because of the fixture backlog. As I said, the highlight from last season was winning the league cup, and we had some good games in that cup run. Our cup run in that competition was really good, with us winning two of those games on penalties. The best one was when we played Camden United, in the cup. We were 1-0 down after two minutes, and then we equalised in the 97th minute of the game, thanks to a fantastic goal from Romario, before then winning on penalties. So obviously scoring in the seventh minute of added time, that took the life out of Camden United, going into penalties.

As Sajad will tell you, I rarely go to away games, because I’ve got to be at Kodak for the home games that are played here. I did go over to Islington last season, for an away league match with Camden & Islington United. We were 3-0 down in that game with 20 minutes to go, and Camden & Islington were still going for the league title, and they needed to win that game. We got one goal back and then one of our players (Gio) came on, and he said that if we scored again then we’d win this. He then scored a fantastic goal, as we ended up drawing the game 3-3 to complete the comeback, and you just couldn’t write things like that. That was the league gone for Camden & Islington, after drawing that game.

Who would you say, during your time involved with Kodak, has been the toughest team (for their quality) that you’ve faced?

Sajad: The team that we can’t seem to get a win over is Shepherds Bush. I would say that they are definitely one of the most difficult teams that we have played against.

Peter: That’s a question! Shepherds Bush would be the main one now, and back in the day Marsh Rangers and Indian Gymkhana Club, they were some of the top teams who we played against. I can also remember playing against Marsh Rangers on one particular groundhoppers day, and losing that game to them. Broadfields were another difficult team to play, and that was always a local derby for us.

What would you say has been the best Kodak (Harrow) team performance, from the senior men’s side?

Sajad: I would say that it was our cup final performance against Stonewall, last season. It only finished 1-0 to us, but we could easily have been winning 4-0 at half-time. Everything about that final was brilliant, such as the warm-up and the atmosphere as well. But the performance from the team was excellent. We almost scored in the first 80 seconds of the match. Our goalkeeper (Warren McCreeth) made one or two good saves in that game, and the central defenders were amazing in that game. So it was just a great team performance.

Peter: Funnily enough that cup game that I mentioned against Camden United, that was definitely a great game. The chances that we created in that game were really good, as was the way in which we defended throughout. Also, that county cup game against Indian Gymkhana Club, in 2005, that was another standout team performance. Playing Springfield was another very tough game, and before the final, we’d beaten them once and lost to them once. I said that we’d end up drawing this game and then end up beating them on penalties, which was exactly what we did! Finally the cup game against FC Deportivo Galicia was another standout memory. They’d beaten us 2-1, but in about the 95th minute our striker really was brought down and fouled inside of their penalty area. Even the linesman said to the referee that it was a penalty. It turned out that they’d played an ineligible player, and in the end the MCFA made the decision of voiding this competition. To cut a long story short, after a hearing the cup was awarded to us.

Could you talk me through a bit about the history of Kodak (Harrow) FC?

Peter: I’ve only been involved with the club since 1998, but my understanding is that the club (Kodak) itself started in circa 1920. It was started for the workers of the Kodak factory, and the old Kodak Sportsground used to be opposite the Kodak factory. They had a youth set-up back in the day which had fallen by, but back then all of the staff at Kodak were allowed to use the sports facilities. In around 1998, Kodak wanted to sell the sportsground, but thankfully someone over at the Kodak factory was ex-football/had been involved in the game. So that would lead to a third party running it, which would be run by a leisure company and then Nuffield Heath, up until 2011. When the leisure company had pulled out in 2011, we ran the club/ground for two years, and it was just us running it. Land securities would however, eventually sell the ground, and we were given notice to leave. And we’ve now been here (the Harrow Weald Recreation ground) for ten years, after moving here in August 2014.

A condition for Sports England not objecting to the planning permission, was that they had to rehouse us a priority. We as a club, actually wanted the rugby field over at Bannisters, but that didn’t work out. Kodak (Youth) actually won their first cup in 1945, which is an interesting fact. And going back to the old Kodak Sportsground, it was known as the Wembley of the Harrow Youth League, because at one stage they had nine groundsmen. They used to look after the sports field and the factory.