Spalding United have asked assistant manager Lewis Thorogood to take the helm as caretaker after Matt Easton left the BetVictor Northern Premier League‘s Tulips.
Thorogood will take over as acting manager for Saturday’s trip to Worksop, alongside director of football Bob Don-Duncan and player coach Neil Spafford.
Easton, pictured, took charge in September 2018 after working as number two to former manager Chris Rawlinson. He left the Sir Halley Stewart Field with his side sitting in ninth spot in the NPL’s South East Division table.
?Chairman’s comments this morning,we will keep you updated…? https://t.co/SlSkNBsuN7
— Spalding United (@SpaldingUnited) December 5, 2019
Spalding United chairman Andrew Gay confirmed Easton’s departure in a statement on the Tulip’s official Twitter account. Easton originally joined Rawlinson’s staff in May 2017 and Gay thanked him for his efforts since arriving at the club.
“It is with regret I have to inform you all that Matt Easton has resigned from his position as Manager of Spalding United,” said the chairman.
“I would like to thank Matt for all he has done for the club. I wish him all the best for the future and he will always be welcome at Spalding United.”
Spalding United director and shareholder Iain Crawford also paid tribute to Easton on Thursday for his work and professionalism in “incredibly difficult” circumstances.
He told Spalding Today: “As a football club, Spalding United has been left in a horrendous position by past issues, some of which are well documented and others not so much – these are still impacting the football club massively today.
“The new board has in the last four weeks started the process of putting foundations and plans in place along with strategies to allow us to move forward and continue – but sadly these things take time and there is quite simply no overnight fix to this.
“We explained this to the management team and some of the squad during and after the Fans’ Forum on Tuesday night as the new board felt honesty was the best policy to allow us to move forward.
“Then, yesterday afternoon, Matt tendered his resignation to the chairman and explained his reasons for doing so as whilst we never ever wanted Matt to move on we fully understood his reasons and very reluctantly accepted.
“Matt has done an incredible job over the last couple of seasons in the face of some incredibly difficult situations but throughout he remained professional, loyal and kept everything together on the playing side when the easy thing to have done would have been to walk away.
“For that Spalding United will always be grateful to Matt and we wish him nothing but success in whatever or wherever he goes next and he will always be welcome back at Spalding United.”
Image courtesy of @SpaldingUnited/Twitter
