LEE SETS SIGHTS HIGH AT HEMEL
LEE Bircham is chuffed to bits to be the new manager of hometown club Hemel Hempstead Town – and wants to take them all the way to the Football League!
The 43-year-old was appointed Tudors boss on Thursday and will be assisted by ex-Hemel manager Steve Bateman.
The duo had been in joint charge at Berkhamsted last season, leading the unfancied Comrades to the top of Southern League Division One Central before the campaign was cut short in March.
They’ve now jumped two levels to National League South side Hemel and are eager to improve on the Hertfordshire club’s mid-table finish under Sammy Moore last term.
“The ambition is to do as well as we can next season,” said Bircham, who works as an electrican in his day job. “There’s no point saying we want to be mid-table.
“It’s no different to Berkhamsted. I don’t want to go on about budgets, but at Berko we probably had the third or fourth lowest budget in the league. I didn’t say we wanted to finish third bottom, though.
“What we can do is make sure we get lads that are there for the right reasons, especially after what we have just been through.
“We want lads that aren’t chasing the money, ones that will wear the badge with pride. We need to get a group of lads that will do that.
“In the long-run, I would like to get the club into the Football League. The chairman, Dave Boggins, has been here for 23 years and he’s not doing it to be happy with Conference South. He wants to get his team into the Football League – and I want to be the one that does it.”
When The NLP caught up with Bircham on Thursday, you could sense his excitement about his new challenge.
“If it wasn’t QPR, it was Hemel for me,” he said. “They are my two teams and I can’t say how proud I am.
Surreal
“I still live here, I went to school here and to get the Hemel job is fantastic for me. I always thought I would love to do it, but didn’t think the opportunity would come about.
“I go up to the club and there are people there that I know. There is a bit of added pressure because I want to do well for my home-town club, but a bit of local-ness is a good thing. Coming out of Covid, it’s probably more important than ever.”
Now former Non-League defender Bircham, whose brother Marc played for QPR, is keen to sort out his squad for the coming campaign.
“We have 15 or 16 players and now it’s getting the bits on top,” he said. “The cherries aren’t available now, but give it two or three weeks and players may filter down from above.
“The balance in the squad is good. We have got hungry lads from the leagues below and they make the older ones hungry as well. With myself and Steve coming from two leagues below, we know the good ones at that level.”
Bircham is also looking forward to working with chairman Boggins.
“If you move to Hemel and play football, you know Dave Boggins,” added Bircham, who previously led Bovingdon to the Herts Senior County League title. “It was a bit surreal being interviewed by him – he’s a Hemel legend.
“He’s finding a way to get the 3G pitch done and he wants that community involvement. He’s also dropped the price of tickets and I haven’t heard of many clubs doing that.”