FEATURE: Biggleswade ​United boss aims high as play-off battle looms

With Biggleswade Town struggling to preserve their step three status and Biggleswade FC looking likely to remain at step four, it’s United’s battle to secure a top five place in the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division that is catching most eyes this season.

Should promotion follow, then all three Biggleswade clubs could play in the same division next season for the first time.

And the latter part of that equation is certainly the aim of United boss Kane Dougherty, brought in last summer to replace Spaniard Cristian Colas and given a brief to try and take the club to the next level.

"One of the reasons I came here was because I had the belief that the club had the right structure to push on,” said Dougherty.

"There’s lots of ambition here and when I spoke to the chairman and he told me about the club and what they want to achieve, namely to get in and around the top five and maybe secure promotion, it was a challenge I was excited about.”

Fast forward to March and United are indeed in the top five places and in a congested top half of the table are battling it out to remain there with just a few weeks of the season remaining – MK Irish sitting well clear the top and firm favourites for the one automatic promotion spot.

Dougherty said: “There is still lots of work to do but we are in with a chance. It’s a tough, challenging league where anyone can beat anyone and some results have gone our way in recent weeks, but we still have to do the job ourselves.

"We’ve not been as consistent as I’d like us to be, but not many sides have been so that’s why a good run of form can be so important in terms of getting the upper hand.

"We’ll know much more about where we are at the end of this month because we have to face Harpenden, Cockfosters and Tring Athletic and they are all in the mix and will make it hard for us. But if we can get into the play-offs whilst in a good run of form then that will help. It’s the old cliche but we really are just taking it one game at a time as there is no point in looking too far ahead.”

Dougherty, who had just enjoyed promotion to step five with Shefford Town & Campton, had to oversee a large overhaul of the United squad upon his arrival but he’s been pleased with those who have come in over the course of his tenure.

He said: “Lots of players moved on when I came in, mainly through their own choice but also because I felt we could improve in certain areas.

"We ended up keeping four or five from before but a couple of those have since moved on. But once things settled we’ve kept it fairly steady and, other than two or three key arrivals we haven’t had a huge number of changes since the start of the season, after what had been a hard pre-season in trying to get a squad together.

"More recently we’ve been challenged by losing top scorer Liam Smyth who has broken his arm so that was a big blow, but we brought in Henry Snee from Hitchin and Kit Brown has also come back from injury so we’re hoping they can help score some of the goals Liam was providing us with.

"It’s hard to recruit because given all the local clubs at similar levels, the competition for players can be huge, particularly when you don’t have the biggest budget. But what we do have here is a good group who really enjoy being at what is a well-run, volunteer-led club.”

Dougherty says his relationship with club chairman Guillem Balagué is a strong one, with the renowned Spanish football journalist and author playing a hugely active role in promoting the club not only within the local community but also further afield, with his famous ‘Hall of Fame’ – where leading figures from the world of football are pictured holding a United shirt – being frequently added to as he travels around the globe watching the game.

Dougherty added: “Guillem is a busy man and I wasn’t sure how involved he would be but we speak on a weekly basis and with him just having relocated back to the area he is available a bit more and gets to games and training as much as he can. He’s very hands on and likes to be involved, offering his opinions which are always welcome. He’s a breath of fresh air, and it’s quite surreal seeing all these famous faces holding our shirt!

"But anything that helps promote the club is good – we have lots of online followers and a great media team who do so much including podcasts, live streams and so on, which in turn is helping with the footfall and atmosphere at the club, so I’m pleased the players have been giving them something to cheer this season because the relationship between the fans, volunteers and players is really good and they all know and respect each other.

"So hopefully we can now push on and take the club to the next level which would be a great achievement.”​