LEE Fowler has experienced more than his fair share of clubs during his time in football – and believes he has found a good fit at Radcliffe.

After a nomadic playing career and time in charge of Nuneaton Borough and Ilkeston Town, the 36-year-old arrived at the Neuven Stadium in February after the departure of promotion-winning boss Jon Macken.

His first few months at Boro have been far from straight forward with the coronavirus pandemic curtailing the season and resulting in a 16th-place finish in the BetVictor Premier Division.

But former Huddersfield and Coventry man Fowler has been encouraged by what he’s seen so far as he’s got to work with chairman Paul Hilton.

“I’m lucky I’m at a good football club. As non-league clubs go, I’ve had some absolutely shambolic owners, but all I can see is good things about this football club,” he told the Undr The Cosh podcast.

“They’ve not got the biggest of budgets, they’ve not got the smallest of budgets, but it’s just run by proper men who are honest.

“I’ve spoken to my owner regularly (during the pandemic). We’ve got a good owner with good business sense.”

Fowler is in the process of reshaping his squad for next season, whenever that begins.

While Rhain Hellawell and Matty Crothers are among the players to be staying put next season, Fowler has allowed goalkeeper Ollie Martin to move on, joining FC United, a move he acknowledges has not been universally popular with supporters.

He said: “It’s difficult. Ideally you’d like to do it face-to-face because there’s no grey area and you know the context in which things are being said and coming across. I’ve just been honest with the players.

“I’ve just let go a keeper (Martin) who had player of the season last season, 30 clean sheets in 90 games, but it’s just I want to go a different way.

“The fans are not happy about it but I want to play a certain way and he doesn’t fit into that way of how I want to play.

“I can’t change the way I want to play because he’s had 30 clean sheets in 90 games.

“I tried to be as honest and as clear as I could. I wasn’t horrible.

“I was respectful and praised him for what he did. It’s just how it is.”

As Fowler begins to put his stamp on things at the Neuven, he has a simple trade off when it comes to working with players and trying to create a thriving dressing room – work hard and you can go and play your game.

“I’ve coached, I’ve been manager twice and the lads who have played under me, even the ones who weren’t playing, have always said good things about me,” he said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t know how far I’m going to go, if I’m good or not, all I know is that I know how to create a very good atmosphere.

“I know how to make people feel wanted, respected, I know they’ll buy into me because I don’t rant and rave, I don’t believe in it.

“I think you can pull it out when you need it but if you rant and rave every single day you lose the power of the voice.

“My motto is if you work hard for me I will give you the freedom to go and play football.

“I’ve got no philosophy, no ideology about how I want to play, all it is, is work your plums off and then when you’re in possession of the football go and enjoy yourself and show how good you are.

“I’ve got a plan of where I want to be and where I want to go and you either jump on the train with me or you don’t."