12 months is a long time in football. Almost a year to the day since his appointment at the Bedford Town helm, Lee Bircham was celebrating having taken the club back up to Step 3 at the first attempt.
The Pitching In Division One Central season was a roller-coaster ride of emotions for the 47 year-old, who swapped Leighton Town for The Eyrie last May.
“When I first arrived here, the club was on its knees,” he admitted to us. “The atmosphere around the place had completely gone; the club had just been relegated and there were, quite literally, no players left.
“It needed a complete rebuild, but when you do that there is always going to be a large turnover of players initially because you have to get the chemistry right and that’s the reason why we had so many ups and downs over the course of the early part of the season.
“The remit going into the campaign was to get as close to the play-offs as we could. All of the noise about us being favourites was coming from elsewhere, not us.
“We made a great start to season but the wheels came off when the weather changed; we lost a few players and managed to bring a few new faces in, but there was a ten-game period where we only won twice and it would have been easy for us to have folded under the pressure.
“It shows the strength of character that we have here because we were able to bounce back and ended the season really strongly, which took a lot of courage and determination from everyone involved.
“The pressure that we felt going into the play-offs was also immense. With all the noise coming from our neighbours and the threat of being moved to a different League, the club was desperate to go up.
“Credit to my players because they took it all in their stride. They went into Monday’s game with a quiet confidence and with over 2,000 supporters backing us, we were able to get the job done.
“If you could choose any way to go up, this would be it. The celebrations at the end and the sense of sheer relief will stay with me forever.
“Other than a 20-minute spell at the end of the first half, we were in control as much as you can be in a final like this. It was tense but we got the job done in the end and deserved our victory.
“I have to admit that I didn’t realise exactly how special this club is when I first took over a year ago, but it soon became apparent what a fantastic football club we have here and I am so proud that I have been able to lead us back to Step 3 at the first attempt.
“There have been all sorts of emotions over the course of the season, we’ve been to the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs, but we got to where we wanted to be in the end and that is the main thing.
“You only have to look at the final League table to see how close it is; it has been hotly-contested and I put that down to the budgets of each club being very similar. Bar one or two clubs, there is very little in it and that has been reflected in how the season has panned out.
“There are some outstanding teams and I put Waltham Abbey into that category; they pushed us hard on Monday and can be proud of their efforts.”
So, once the celebrations have finished, the task of planning for next season will begin, but for the next few days at least, Bircham has a full agenda.
“I’m going to take the rest of this week off,” he added. “We’ve got our Presentation Night on Friday then I have my brother’s Stag Do and I’ve also got to give my daughter some driving lessons before her test, so there is plenty going on.
“Then, next week I will start planning for Step 3.”
We congratulate Lee and his Bedford Town team on promotion and send our commiserations to Waltham Abbey.
IMAGE: Bedford Town FC
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