Bovingdon celebrated being crowned Herts Senior County League champions in style by thumping Wormley Rovers 7-1 on Saturday but Lee Bircham doesn’t want the title to be the peak of the village club’s achievements.

The Green Lane side won the Premier Division by 18 points, dropping just eight all season, as two goals apiece from Matt Standen, Lewis Pritchard and Martin Standen plus a Courtney Massay single saw them hit seven for the third game running.

Although they have won the league, Bovingdon are still waiting to find out where they will be playing next season – they could remain in the county league if they are not accepted into Division Two of the Spartan South Midlands League – but Bircham is hoping the club can get the infrastructure it needs to try and progress up the ladder.

The manager said: “Seeing this today, the place is packed and that’s what it’s all about. Hopefully from here we can push the club on and get the floodlights that we need. It’s (the foundations are) here, we’ve got the people to do it, it’s just a case of pushing it on. The (adjacent) tennis club’s got them so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have them.”

In addition to floodlights, Bircham also wants to build on what was an all-round day of celebration for the Green Army as both junior and senior annual presentations were staged, while the Reserves received their trophy for winning Division One of the county league.

Bircham said: “We’ve got all the kids involved as much as we could because before at this club there’s been a little bit of juniors and seniors, two separate things and nobody was working hard enough to pull it together.

“I’ve got kids in Bovingdon Juniors, I’m first-team manager and it’s imperative for me for it to come together.”

Asked about the success of the Reserves, he added: “It’s what we’ve always said, if you can get the top bit right then it goes right down.

“It goes unnoticed but I think the A team finished second or third and they’ve stepped up a league this year.

“What we’d love to get ideally is the kids coming through and going through a system, A team, reserves and into the first team and try and produce our own.”

It took a while for Bovingdon to get into their stride on Saturday, but they took the lead midway through the first half from a Matt Standen penalty following a push in the 18-yard box.

A second followed five minutes before the interval when Lewis Pritchard capitalised on hesitancy between the Rovers keeper and a defender following good work by Stefan Bailey.

The midfielder set up Pritchard for his second shortly after the restart as well, heading the ball back into the danger zone for the striker to sweep home.

A rare lapse at the back allowed Wormley to pull one back, but after seeing a goal not awarded because the assistant referee’s view of a goalmouth scramble was blocked, Bovingdon scored four more in the final quarter of the match.

With Bircham having brought himself on as a substitute to play up front, Massay fired home the fourth from the right side of the 18-yard box before almost repeating the trick soon after, only yo see his shot strike the far post.

Martin Standen then struck twice in quick succession, the second with a good strike from 20 yards, before his brother completed the scoring with a sharp half-volley from a ball over the top.

“It looked a bit edgy to start with but I think the boys did it the right way. I was pleased,” Bircham said. “That’s what we’ve been about all year. We’ve got talent but we work harder than most teams and that’s got us where we are.”

Although the manager is hoping the club can progress, he is not optimistic about keeping his title-winning side together.

“Probably not,” he admitted when asked if he thought he could keep the team intact. “I would want to keep them together in a certain way but I don’t think that’s what it’s about. They’ve had offers this season, those offers aren’t going to go away and I don’t want to be labelled as a manger that prevents lads from moving on.

“I want them to go on and play higher. It looks good on me, it looks good on the club and if youngsters and other lads can see they can come here, learn their trade and get pushed on we get a good name that way.”

The awards saw Bailey win Manager’s Player, Will Summerfield take the Players’ Player accolade and Massay named Supporters’ Player.

Cameron Brooks was awarded the Young Player gong and Matt Standen won top goalscorer.