Murry Toms had just returned from Glastonbury when he spoke to The Local Answer.

While he admitted to being a “bit tired” after the three-day music spectacular, Cheltenham Town’s first ever ‘fan-elected director’ is aiming to hit all the right notes ahead of his first full season in his new role. However, he confesses that it is a job he is still coming to terms with.

The lifelong Cheltenham fan, who has worked for the club to great effect behind the scenes for many years, said: “Yes, it’s all a bit new. I’ve put my head above the parapet, whereas before I was always operating in the shadows.”

Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that his favourite act at Glastonbury was DJ Shadow!

Just as he is with his football club, Murry is 100 per cent committed to Glastonbury and this year was the 20th time that he made the trek down to deepest Somerset.

But unlike when he watches Cheltenham Town play football, he didn’t stay right to the end at Worthy Farm. “I left long before Ed Sheeran started,” he laughed. “That’s not the sort of music I’m into!”

He’s into all things Cheltenham, though, and in a big way.

Even though he lives in Gloucester – his long-time partner Laura is a teacher at King’s School – Murry is Cheltenham through and through.

And it’s not just the football club that Murry is passionate about; he is passionate about the town and its people as well, and one of his aims in his new role – which entitles him to a seat on the club’s board – is to bring the football club and the community closer together.

The 40-year-old has a very sharp brain behind his cheerful exterior and his elevation to a position of importance at the football club is extremely good news for everyone.

“I see my role as representing the fans’ view at board level,” he said. “I got elected through the Robins Trust but I also want to represent the town and the community.

“I got elected at the back end of last season and it’s been a bit strange not really seeing too many people over the past few weeks but I’m happy to talk to anyone, not just the fans who go there week in, week out.

“I spoke to hundreds of people before last season finished – in the ground, in the car park, in the bar. It’s quite overwhelming that people want to speak to me.”

Overwhelming it may be at times, but Murry, who never misses a Cheltenham game, has already started to work his magic at the club.

A crowdfunding campaign raised £63,000 and now the club are the proud owners of a spanking new electronic scoreboard.

“It will improve the supporter experience in the ground,” said Murry, “but it’s much more than that. It will provide a new revenue stream through sponsorship deals that we didn’t have before.”

These days Murry is a bigwig in the digital world – he has worked closely with Glastonbury Festival over the years and still gets a complimentary ticket – and he has a business brain.

It was his idea to reduce ticket prices to £12 for the ‘must-win’ game against Hartlepool United at the end of last season. That game produced a great result off the pitch as well as on it with more than 5,000 flocking through the turnstiles to see Cheltenham ensure their place in the Football League for another season with a 1-0 win.

“That was our 12th man campaign and we had our biggest crowd for quite a few years,” he said with justifiable pride. “It’s about making the big games better. Hartlepool was obviously a massive game and our campaign probably got an extra thousand into the ground and they really bought into the atmosphere.

“You’ve got to pick your games. Do that for Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday in December and it’s not going to add to the fan experience.

“The games against Forest Green will be big. That doesn’t mean we’ll be reducing ticket prices – it’s about giving fans more for their money. I want to use my experience of the digital world for the benefit of the club and the fans.”

Newly promoted Premier League club Huddersfield Town made a pledge to their season-ticket holders some 20 years ago that if they ever reached the ‘Promised Land’ in English football they would cap their season-ticket prices at £100.

It means tickets will effectively cost £5 for many of their fans to watch the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, and Murry, while impressed, said: “That’s easier to do, I suppose, if you’re getting £150 million from the Premier League.

“It’s much harder for clubs like Cheltenham even though we are a model of sustainability. What I want to do is create an atmosphere where everybody takes responsibility – all the fans put something in and we all get something back.

“It gives a sense of ownership, a bit like at AFC Wimbledon. They had to hit rock bottom before coming back. The club is owned by the supporters and everybody is proud to be part of it.

“That’s not a vision of mine but why shouldn’t the fans own the club? It’s all about getting the community to engage.”

So, what is Murry’s vision?

“I believe Cheltenham Town is at a crossroads,” he said. “We’ve had an incredible last 20 years but we can cling on and cling on or we can put down some foundations for the next 20 years.

“Paul Baker has done an amazing job as a chairman but he is standing down at the end of the season.

“We need to ask ourselves what we as fans can do to ease the burden on someone who is essentially a volunteer.

“I want to see supporters take on a bit more in terms of giving of their time or coming up with ideas. It’s not just about money.

“It’s too easy, in this day and age, to just to sit behind a laptop and criticise.

“If people don’t look after this club it could disappear. We went out of the Football League a couple of years and did very well to get straight back out of the National League. If there is a next time we might not be so successful and it could be catastrophic.”

Cheltenham will, of course, be rubbing shoulders with near neighbours Forest Green in the Football League for the first time next season.

The talk is that the Nailsworth club want to model themselves on Burton Albion who are punching well above their weight in the Championship.

That is something that Murry feels Cheltenham should aspire to as well, although maybe not just yet.

“It’s something that we as a club have got to look at achieving,” he said, “but it hasn’t just happened at Burton. If you look at them it shows you how important it is to have a new main stand which can generate a lot of money.

“That’s something we desperately need in the next few years at Cheltenham because at the moment we have no commercial spin-offs from our main stand. It’s essential really.”

When Murry talks, people should listen. Not only is he business savvy and very much in tune with the 21st century, he knows football inside out pretty much from the top to the bottom.

“I’ll watch all football,” he said, “from grassroots to the very top level. I’ve been all over; I’ve watched football in Germany, France, Spain. I’ve been to the Maracana Stadium in Brazil and I’ve watched Real Madrid play. I pick up ideas from all levels of the game.

“I've watched a lot of football across Europe and on all five continents which is something I'm proud of.”

The Real Madrid game was back in the day of the original Galacticos – of David Beckham, Figo and Zidane. And they put on a show for the watching Murry that day as they trounced their opposition 6-1.

Eagle-eyed TV viewers will have spotted Beckham at Glastonbury, of course, and as in the early noughties when Murry watched him play, he was not disappointed by the one-time England football captain when he came face to face with him down on the farm. “I shook his hand,” Murry chuckled, “he seems a good bloke.”

Murry did not take his long-time partner Laura Pike, with whom he has a five-year-old daughter, to Glastonbury.

In fact, Cheltenham football fans could be forgiven for thinking that Murry may be a single man because Laura – who he calls “Pikey” – has never been to a football match.

Nor has his daughter and that is something he plans to rectify in the near future.

“Yes, she wants to go,” he said. “It’s something we need to do on a wider level, getting more ladies and girls to come to watch Cheltenham Town.”

If anyone can make that happen, of course, it’s Murry.

So does he fancy the top job when Paul Baker stands down?

“I don’t think I could do that, it would mean I’d have to do more interviews with people like you,” he laughed, before adding, still laughing, “it’s a very good question, I’ve never been asked that question before!

“I’ve honestly never thought about it. Let’s just say, ‘I’ve already got a day job!’”.