CHRIS Herbst has revealed his pride at managing his hometown club of Bridport.

Herbst took the permanent Bees job this week after beating seven other candidates in contention.

He succeeds previous boss Edgar Marcu after a successful interim spell, ending a 392-day wait for a win plus taking two draws alongside a solitary loss.

Herbst steps up from his Bridport Reserves role to manage the first team and he did not hide his sense of honour at taking the top job.

READ MORE: Chris Herbst named new Bridport manager

In his first interview since being named boss, he told Echosport: “It shows I must be doing something right!

“It’s unbelievable. It’s representing your home town. What’s happened previously, seeing the club go down and now you’re the one building it back up.

“I’m just buzzing. I’m still getting messages, it’s really nice. I always thought: ‘Would I want to do it?’

“Then when I went in for it I realised I really did want it.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it and secretly I was gutted but when Dougal (Adrian Scadding, chairman) told me I was walking around the training ground with a massive grin on my face, everyone was just laughing at me.

“When I got told the news, everyone was buzzing so it was a good feeling and it was nice to have some positives.

“Hopefully we can get a few results. I know I’ve got a big job on my hands.”

And Herbst has already exercised caution over the scale of that big job, stressing the rebuild required will not happen instantly.

He said: “At the meeting I said it’s going to take time. We’re not going to change ten players for ten players, it’s not going to work like that.

“It’s going to be a gradual thing, freshen it up with a few faces. There’s good players there, right on my doorstep.

“So, it’s just about getting performances out of them. You can see the last few results I’ve had have been positive, so you can see something building.

“Hopefully the players will be looking around thinking Bridport have got a good thing going on and they’ll be more interested.”

And Herbst is so focused on the short-term task that he has not considered the long-term plan in as much detail.

“I’ve not really thought about that,” he admitted. “I just want to get away from the bottom and get mid-table. I’d take that now, definitely.

“You’ve got to be realistic with it. Teams don’t get relegated, very rarely, and are then fighting for titles. It never happens, especially at this level.”