And Benterman is relishing the prospect of managing his local club. However, the new man at the helm says he is coming into the job with his eyes open and appreciates the challenges that lie ahead after moving up to take charge at step four of the non-league pyramid for the first time.

Benterman, who lives and works in Witham and was given his Town playing debut by manager Tony Last, has arrived at Spa Road after successful stints in charge of Halstead Town and Debenham LC.

He has most recently been at Essex Senior League outfit Stansted where he was joint-manager and led them to a cup `double` and runners-up spot in the league last season and is now excited to be stepping up with Witham.

"I'm a Witham lad," he told the club`s website. "I live and work here and it took me 7 minutes to walk to the ground when I had my interview for the job.

"I know them and I played under Lasty when he was manager.

"It wasn't many games, but Lasty gave me my debut.

"Now my son goes there for training every weekend so the chance to manage the club was an opportunity I couldn't turn down.

"I had a great time at Stansted last year and we so nearly did a treble there.

"We won both of the cups that we were in for and were runners-up in a very competitive Essex Senior League, but the chance to put my beliefs into practice at a higher level was something I wanted to do.

"I'm not naive enough to think I did well at Stansted so that means this will be easy, but people have been very kind and said to me that I deserve the chance.

"I have my eyes very open and I will surround myself with the best quality staff. "Witham has a great committee running it and I was so excited by what they had to say.

"The club has fantastic facilities and you think 'wow, the infrastructure is incredible' so the whole project excites me.

"What the club needs now is stability and continuity and we're looking to bring that."

One big weapon that Benterman will have at his disposal is that former Witham fans' favourite Paul King has agreed to come on board as part of his managerial team.

And Benterman knows how valuable his friend's experience will be. "There is a lot to do, so I'm very pleased to have Paul King on board.

"I've known him since we were 6 or 7 and he's going to be a big part of my management team.

"I'm not sure what role he'll have but he will be on board.

"He didn't take much persuading - I touched base with him when I got the opportunity to go for the job and we ended up talking for nearly three hours.

"He said he couldn't be manager, but he'd love to be involved.

"I can't wait to get to work and adding Kingy in gives it the wow factor".

Simon Spurgeon