We have achieved 'the impossible' says departing Bedford Town boss Lee Bircham

A 1-1 home draw with Scarborough Athletic on Saturday proved enough to keep the Eagles punching above their weight for another year after two successive promotions under Bircham after he inherited a relegated side in May 2023.

“It is nice to look back at what we've achieved here with a smile. We have somehow done the impossible,” he said.

“For loads of reasons I didn't want to finish on a defeat, and I would have liked to have finished on a win.

“I didn't want to stay up by not gaining anything. With the season we've had it was massive for us to win the game.

“We didn't, but we drew against a good side who are top five for a reason.

“I am immensely proud. Did anyone think we'd survive this league? Of course not.

“There is probably no reason why we could stay in this league with what we've got. But we've managed to do it.

“It's funny as you don't want to celebrate just staying up – no one is wired that way. You celebrate winning leagues. You celebrate promotions. Not staying up. But we probably should do.

“We have a good group in there so you are always confident. But the way things have gone against us this year with 90+ minute equalisers or winners we've had against us – and we've had nothing go the other way - you start to feel it's all going against you.

“In hindsight you would rather your last game at this club means something rather than a dead rubber – and it certainly did.”

He added: “You have to pinch yourself sometimes at how far this club has come.

“We have left it as a National League club no matter what happens.

“We walked into a club that had no feeling and hadn't scored in 12 games or whatever the stats were. It was on the floor.

“To leave it as a National League club takes some doing and I probably don't expect to top that in my career.”

Bircham now faces an uncertain future and said: “Everyone now just assumes I have something lined up, but I haven't.

“I wouldn't do that to this club and I wouldn't do that to John Taylor. All my energy has been going on trying to keep the club in this league and leaving it where we've got it to.

“Maybe going down would have been the best thing for this club in some ways as you can build a lot stronger from a proper position. But no one wants to go down and myself and the players did not want that to happen.

“What an achievement. Sometimes it is important how you leave a club.

“If nothing comes up for us in the summer then nothing comes up. That is football.”

He continued: “Look at our supporters at the end. We have never had that. We didn't walk in to that.

“This is a fantastic football club and there is a genuine love for it from supporters.

“This is Bedford. These are the Bedford people, this is their football club and we have left it in a really good place.”

Bircham had special praise for the heroics of goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore, saying: “Since we signed Ashmore after about six to eight weeks into the season we have never been in the bottom four.

“That signing was a big turning point for us. What a man and what a keeper.

“Tyrone Marsh's goals were huge, but Ashmore is a legend.”