Striker Gary Birch has paid tribute to the AFC Telford United fans, revealing: “I’ll miss them the most.”Birch turned down the offer of a one-year contract at the New Bucks Head, dropping two divisions to sign a two-year deal with Chasetown instead.

He puts that down to a lack of first team opportunities at the Blue Square North club in the last 18 months.

But he insists he will always remember with affection the Telford supporters, who really took to the former Walsall and Lincoln man.

“I really enjoyed my time in Telford and the thing I’m going to miss most is the supporters – they’ve been fantastic to me and I felt they absolutely loved me so it made it hard to go,” said Birch.

“I’ve had to make a footballing decision and I wanted to go so I could play regular football and enjoy it.

“I’d like to thank the supporters though, and I’d like to thank Rob and Larry (managers Smith and Chambers), as well as the chairman Lee Carter, for showing interest in me when they did and I’ll keep an eye on how Telford get on in the future.

“I firmly believe that its a club that’s going places and will achieve a lot.”

The Telford offer to Birch included a stipulation that he return to pre-season training at a set weight target, and that was another factor that persuaded him to leave.

The 26-year-old insists he had no problem with that rider on the deal, but was swayed by the ‘no-strings-attatched’ offer made by Chasetown.

“The deal at Chasetown is good and I should get the opportunity to play week-in-week-out,” he added.

“I really feel Chasetown are going places and it looks like they’re going to give it a real good go next season. I haven’t given up on getting back to the pro game.”