Hyde United used Hudl to reach the FA Cup first round for the first time in their history.

Evo-Stik League team Hyde United FC recently played in the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in 23 years, hosting League One giants MK Dons.

The game was broadcast live on the BBC from their small, yet homely, Ewan Fields Stadium, a game which reportedly earned the Tigers a £150,000 payday. That money is a welcome boost for a club that became a community-owned venture in 2015.

Assistant Manager David McGurk explains how they run their club on a tight budget, how they manage a part time environment and the role Hudl plays in helping them succeed against big spending competition.

“The analyst has a certain structure that he looks for in terms of the positions that the opposition get into, and the positions we try and prevent them getting into,” McGurk said. “I’ll get figures on the data on that; how they got into them positions, the clips, the timings and it makes my job easier in terms of going through them, speaking to individuals, speaking to units and then putting sessions on.”

Janni Lipka, Hyde United’s central midfielder, has seen firsthand the benefit Hudl provides.

“The management staff here have a very professional setup,” Lipka said. “They use [video analysis] every week to show us what we’ve done well, what we haven’t done well, and then they can take that into the training the following week and design the practices working on what we can improve on coming up to the next Saturday.”

McGurk explains their overall objective of using Hudl, which is all about getting the most out of a group of players when they take the pitch, regardless of the competition.

“For me it’s getting maximum efficiency out of the boys. You’ve got lads who are not on a lot of money here but we’ve got to try and go beyond what they’re on, so if you bring a player in on £100 per week, can we turn them into a £200 per week player and get the maximum efficiency out of every single player in every single session.”

Want to learn more about how to implement video analysis? The Head of Performance Analysis for the Houston Dynamo talks about how they use Hudl at the club.