At the midway point of the season, fans of Bedford Town FC are in high spirits as their team sit second in the league with two games in hand over top-of-the-league, North Leigh.
On Monday night, the Bedford Independent caught up with Bedford Town manager Lee Bircham to discuss the team’s success and how they are approaching the second half of the season.
When asked how the team has performed in comparison to his aims before the season started, Lee claimed that they had gone “above expectations”.
Going into the season, the team at Bedford Town knew it was going to be tough due to bringing in a whole new squad; however, they have all quickly bonded and are sitting on top after only one defeat, an impressive achievement for a group of players who have only being playing together for half a year.
Each game is a ‘cup final’
Nevertheless, Lee emphasised how this is only “a good start”, and the team is taking each game one at a time. Despite currently surpassing the aims of a play-off position, the team must continue this form in order to remain in and around top of the table.
We also asked Lee to shed light on whether the aims for the season have changed in light of the Eagles’ exceptionally promising start.
Lee responded that the team was “taking one game at a time”, facing each game “as if it’s a cup final”. This mentality doesn’t allow them to change aims, instead the squad looks to win each game, and then “the league will take care of itself”.
Looking at the horrendous weather conditions which have caused many games to be called off recently, Lee explained how averaging one game every two weeks “kills the team’s momentum”, and how it becomes hard to keep a full squad happy due to lack of game time.
Players are lost as a result of this, leading to an ever-changing subs bench.
However, there are positives to take from these long breaks between matches such as players being given more time to recover from injuries. In the case of the captain, Alex Collard, his injury may take a month to recover from but in that time he will only be absent for two or three games rather than the six or seven he could have potentially missed.
Due to the many games being called off, the Bedford Independent asked if Lee believed the squad was big enough to face a fixture pile-up in the spring. He pointed out how it’s difficult to predict what the squad will look like come in a couple of months, with injuries, suspensions and departing players.
“The team must take it game-by-game, and if the squad isn’t strong enough it means bringing in players to help us”, he said.
At the start of the season, the Eagles’ squad was completely stripped, and all new players brought in. Lee commented on how this is a difficult task, especially considering all the “big personalities” in the changing room – however, there is a visible bond between the team now which has strengthened the quality of performances.
Even in comparison to the beginning of the season, the squad has changed considerably. With the departures and many new additions to the team, Lee believes they are more prepared for injuries and setbacks, and “are a lot stronger now than we were at the start of the season”.
Enquiring into the new players being brought in, Lee told us to look out for Henry, a 17-year-old who has already played a sizable amount of senior men’s football.
Lee said he’s particularly pleased with the amount of young talent that they have brought in when pointing out other players, such as Charlie – 19 years old – and George – 20 years old – who have been brought in from St Albans.
On Saturday (27 January), the Eagles face Aylesbury at the Eyrie and Lee told us how the win against Kings Langley has meant that the squad is going into this game confident and excited.
After three draws and a defeat, the Eagles needed this win to get them back on track, especially amidst the ‘stop-start’ cycle which has been a result of the weather conditions.
However, the performance of the team is more important than the winning result, and Lee took the brilliant first-half performance as a positive despite the slightly drab second period. The game has “left a buzz in training” and has given them much more confidence going into the weekend.
Lastly, we asked Lee what some of his personal highlights have been since he joined Bedford Town.
“We’ve had some really great results, some really good performances”, he said, highlighting the 7-1 win over Ware back in September as a particular high point.
The “bond” between the team has created a “wonderful feel” to the club and the backing of the board has made Lee feel supported since joining Bedford Town.
He ended off our interview by saying that he’s pleased with the “real good start”, and that Bedford Town is a club he’d like to “stay at for a long time”.
Tickets for all of Bedford Town’s home games, including this Saturday against Aylesbury can be bought here.
