THE appointment of former jewellery store manager Nick Bassett as York City's club secretary might have raised a few eyebrows last month.

In comparison with the decades of experience amassed by his predecessors Nigel Pleasants and Keith Usher, Bassett has no previous background in football administration.

But the Nottingham Forest supporter has no shortage of enthusiasm for the game and has also been involved with a string of professional clubs over the last 16 years as a prominent sponsor.

While working for Goldsmiths between 1989 and 2002, he provided engraved silver salvers for Newcastle United to present to their Champions League opponents, commemorated Gary Pallister's first England cap as a young Middlesbrough defender and enjoyed a strong business relationship with Darlington before the arrival of controversial former chairman George Reynolds.

More recently, Bassett has been an active sponsor of the Minstermen over the last three years as branch manager of Preston and Duckworth's York store.

The company sponsored the player of the month competition for two seasons before the store was closed this summer due to problems unrelated with their successful York store.

Having been made redundant in July, Bassett then had a cartilage operation to correct an old footballing injury and, having learned how to walk again, was delighted to be asked about the KitKat Crescent club secretary vacancy when former Leeds United, Norwich City and Harrogate Town administrator Pleasants decided to retire.

He said: "After leaving Preston and Duckworths, I wanted to do something different but did not know what. As often happens though in life, the phone call from Jason (McGill) came out of the blue.

"He asked me if I would like to talk about the position and I said I would be delighted to and, within three weeks, I was working alongside Nigel during the last couple of weeks of his retirement. It is a total change in career direction but a great opportunity to get involved in an industry I fell in love with as a kid.

"I also feel I am getting involved with a club that's going places. When you look at what has happened at the club in the last three years, it's like a Hollywood film script and it continues to change and develop.

"I think the board are very focussed on the future with the promise of a new ground in a few years time and the job seemed an exciting prospect for me."

Bassett admitted the fortnight shadowing Pleasants was vital in his transition from jewellery store manager to football club secretary as he became familiar with the protocol concerning player transfers in terms of who needs to sign which paperwork and what deadlines need to be met.

Even so, there is no substitute for hands-on experience and he said: "Last Friday there were a lot of decisions about loan players coming in and the possibility of one or two of our reserve players going out. We were juggling four and five about at one stage and that's one hell of a learning curve with just three weeks' experience but it was very exciting.

"I'm absolutely loving the job. It's very varied and sometimes you can be dealing with the nitty-gritty side of things like maintenance of the ground. For example, most of last week was spent concentrating on trying to get the pitch dry because of all the rain we had.

"At times, it's frantic and very pressurised with several jobs on the go at once and then it calms down and you have time to catch up. What I enjoy most is the contact with the manager and the players and also the fact that I am now guaranteed to watch more football than when I was working on a Saturday."

Bassett is required to work closely with first-team boss Billy McEwan in his new role and believes that the meticulous Scotsman shares some of the qualities espoused by his Nottingham Forest hero - the late, great Brian Clough.

McEwan played under Clough at Brighton and Bassett said: "You are bound to pick up something when you have worked with someone like Cloughie and, like Brian, Billy always tells it how it is. There are no frills and he's a very straight talker.

"He's also incredibly focussed and knows exactly what he wants. He sets himself goals and, as soon as he achieves them, he raises the bar because he's not satisfied."

Bassett admits he is still on a learning curve at KitKat Crescent but has discovered several skills acquired in his previous job that are relevant in his new role, which where qualities obviously recognised by City managing director McGill.

Before heading off to persuade Scarborough to allocate 2,000 visiting tickets for the January 2 clash against the Minstermen, Bassett said: "There's people management involved in both jobs and there's customer management as well.

"We have several thousand customers that come and see us play every couple of weeks and they need to be treated right and, if they have problems, we need to solve them and create an environment where they want to come back again. The principles are very similar to retail in that respect."

Updated: 10:06 Saturday, November 19, 2005