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BBC News
28-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Oliver Twist' club Bedford Town celebrate promotion
It almost feels like a case of anything you can do, we can do Town clinched the Southern League Premier Central title with a 2-0 win over Stourbridge in front of a crowd of 2,186, just days after Real Bedford became Division One Central is the second season in a row that both Bedford clubs have won promotion, having recently abandoned plans to merge for next will now play in National League North or South in 2025-26, the second tier of English non-league football."It wasn't until about 10 minutes before the end of the game that we thought we were going to get the job done," manager Lee Bircham told BBC Three Counties Radio."I think the owners have struck it lucky with what they've spent, to get a championship-winning team - I hope they don't expect more of the same because that's a one-off."There's be a big queue of us lining up outside their door now, it'll be like a scene from Oliver Twist."The Eagles went into the game against Stourbridge with a three-point lead over rivals Kettering Town, but with an inferior goal Blake put them ahead in the first half and Jack Davies added the second after 74 minutes to delight their fans at their The Eyrie ground in Cardington. The achievement was all the more remarkable because Bircham expressed the view in January that a merger was the "right solution" for the club because they could not compete financially at Southern League Premier level."It's a totally unexpected promotion. It was never planned. There's some monster football clubs in that league and genuinely we wanted fifth from bottom, that's what we were aiming for, that was the target," said Bircham. "We lost out on a lot of players (last summer) because we weren't ambitious enough but we got a few wins, changed a few players around and the momentum carried on."Bircham, who has a contract to the end of the 2026-27 season, now doubts how "genuine" the merger proposal was - but believes it worked to the advantage of his part-time team."It didn't disrupt us, if anything it pulled us together, so we thank them for that, it was a masterstroke really," he players are now set for a post-season celebration in Marbella before reviewing the situation as to what will be needed to be competitive next term."We haven't had discussions with players about being National League, we haven't got a clue what we're going to do," Bircham added."We're going to make it up as we go - but we have this year as well. "I'm going to try and enjoy actually getting promoted before I worry about next season. The club has worked so hard to get there and want to stay there, of course they do. They want to give it a go."The National League will confirm later in the summer which division Town - who were originally founded in 1908 - will play that happens, the Eagles will consider themselves at Bircham was speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio's Andy Collins
BBC News
14-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Real Bedford men and women promoted in same weekend
Real Bedford are celebrating a double promotion while talks continue about a possible merger with the town's other Southern League men's team clinched the Division One Central title with a 1-0 home win over Kings Langley on Saturday, courtesy of Joe Evans' first-half game was watched by cryptocurrency investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who have invested about £3.6m in the on Sunday, the women's team secured promotion from WNL Division One South East with an emphatic 11-1 win over London Seaward as Sofia Stovold and Abbie Bensted both scored hat-tricks. Owner Peter McCormack bought the former Bedford FC in 2021 and changed the name to Real Bedford at the end of that wants the town to have a club in the English Football League, and ultimately the Premier men's team have now won three successive promotions under boss Rob Sinclair, but which league they will play in next season is still up in the air as talks about a possible merger with Bedford Town who were originally founded in 1908, are currently three points clear, external at the top of Southern League Premier Central, the division Real would most likely be in next season if they did not become a single told BBC Sport on Monday that there was nothing new on the merger following Saturday's win, he said: "You create a project, you say you want to get a team in the Football League, and you know you've got to do six promotions - that was the goal."To do three back to back is incredible, quite overwhelming. But then it's 'OK, how do we do a fourth?'" The bitcoin podcaster told the club's social media channels he was delighted to have the Winkelvoss twins among the 1,426 crowd at the Eyrie."For them to see us win a championship, see what it means for the town, for the people and be part of the moment, it helps them understand it," he said."When they're in America and I'm explaining it, they kind of get it but when you're here and experience it, you know what it's about. It's going to help getting them more embedded in the project."It was announced last week that the first Universal theme park in the UK is to be built on the site of a former brickworks near Bedford and McCormack believes it has the chance to be the fastest growing town in the country."It's just a very cool time to be a Bedfordian," he added.
