Hereford has a Dedicated Analyst

Goal! The ball hits the net and seconds later your mobile phone, favourite website or TV sports show is telling you who scored for which team and when.

Ever wondered how the information gets there so quickly? Well here's how. Every club, including Hereford United, has its own dedicated analyst - all former players registered with the Professional Footballers' Association - who relay every action of the game to the headquarters of Press Association Sport in Yorkshire.

The Press Association recently won the competitive tender process for the seasons 2010-11 to 2012-13 with Football DataCo, the company owned by The Football League and Premier League, giving it the official rights to provide that highly-prized information.

And so each season millions of vital statistics and facts from around the grounds are recorded in detail by a network of 230 staff. Every action - from goals and fouls to free-kicks and corners - is recorded and sent in seconds to broadcasters, websites and newspapers throughout the UK.

"Our data operation is accurate, fast and highly efficient," said Simon Boynton, Executive Director, Press Association Sport.

"A blow-by-blow account of every game is relayed back by analysts - all former players registered with the PFA - to 80 staff in our production centre in Yorkshire who then produce data-driven text commentaries via their computers.

"The words are punched in by mouse as the operators click on various actions. The information is then saved in a database before being delivered via feeds to our customers."

Ian Campbell, Managing Director of Press Association Sport said: "We put everything into our results service; it is a responsibility we take very seriously because of the need to get it right. The DataCo relationship is at the heart of our business and we are privileged that football has placed such faith in our ability to collect, manage and monetise its data worldwide."

For the 2008/9 season, across the Premier League, Football League, Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League, Press Association Sport recorded that 34 million fans attended the matches, 7164 goals were scored, and 530 red cards were handed out.

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