TWO IN BUT NO ONE YET TO LEAD TUDORS
HEMEL Hempstead Town chairman Dave Boggins has expressed his delight at capturing ‘local talent’ in the shape of Matty Bateman and Jonathan ‘JJ’ Lacey.
Striker Bateman, 24, has arrived from Royston Town on a one-year deal. He was previously with Berkhamsted and will give the Tudors extra firepower.
Winger Lacey, 21, was dual registered with Hemel last term, but played the bulk of his football at Berkhamsted.
Although the Tudors have yet to appoint a new manager following the departure of Sammy Moore last month, Boggins didn’t want to let the duo slip through his fingers.
“I was anxious to sign those two boys and I’m delighted to have got them,” he told The NLP. “If the new manager doesn’t like them, he ain’t coming!
“We’ve been going all round the country for talent in recent times, but now we’ve got some local talent, which I’m really pleased about. It’s a great coup for us.”
Boggins believes the pair will be a big hit at Vauxhall Road.
“We had Jonathan dual signed last year and he played a couple of games,” said Boggins, who added that versatile Jake Howells, 29, is going to re-sign for next season. “He knew we would come back for him and we’ve managed to get him.
“Matty is a target man, he’s relatively young and he scores goals. They’ve been a good combination before and I hope we can spark that up again.”
Former Berkhamsted managerial duo Steve Bateman – no relation to Matty – and Lee Bircham have been heavily tipped to take over at the Hertfordshire club, but Boggins insisted there hadn’t been any developments.
“We have a couple of managers in mind,” he said. “If one doesn’t take it, we’ll give it to the other!
“We’re keeping our options open until the National League make their decisions and we know when we have a start date for next season.”