MARK BETTS has confirmed his decision to leave Slough Town and become the permanent manager at Burnham this season.

Betts had been with Slough since 2005 and was joint-manager at Burnham for the last 10 matches in the previous campaign.

His decision was made once their position in the Hellenic Premier Division was confirmed but admits The Blues face a rebuilding job this season.

“I’ve moved away from Slough Town because, if I’m going to commit to this, it needs to be 110%,” Betts told the Observer.

“I had been at Slough for 12 years, which I didn’t know and is a long time, and it’s time for a change.

“My time at Slough has been amazing, some real highs in the last four or five years, and it was an absolute honour to have been a part of the club for so long.

“But I’m now the manager at Burnham, the head role, so it’s my ship to steer into the harbour.

“It has been a bit of a nightmare with the league, first we were up, then down and then back up again, but I will stay on as manager and see what we can do.”

He continued: “There has been a lot of local interest shown which is good but it’s going to be a total rebuild for us. Two lads will stay from last year but everyone else is new.

“It’s going to be a tough season with clubs with big budgets and teams with good players.

“We didn’t start back until last Tuesday but it’s going along well. The games we’ve got coming up will give us a good insight into who is good enough for this level.

“We just want to look at players more and see what we’ve got to work with.

“We will be a tight-knit squad, we will go with 18 players, and see what we can do because our playing budget is tiny.

“I sold it is a blank canvas because there needs to be a fresh start here. There’s a lot of potential there, the players are young and keen, so I’m excited and look forward to Saturday. I will probably be pleasantly surprised.”

Burnham have a friendly at Harrow Borough next Tuesday (7.45pm) after their intended pre-season match with Marlow was postponed on in midweek to protect the pitch at The Gore.

Betts said: "We were meant to play Marlow on Tuesday but that was a nightmare.

"The pitch looks superb and has had a lot of work done to it, but it rained from 4pm and we had no way of playing.

"Malcolm [Higton, club president] made the decision because it is going to be a long season and the club has spent a lot of money on the pitch.

"Its a shame because we had two 11s organised that we wanted to have a look at to see what we have got and what we have not."

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