CHRIS LAKEY Cash-strapped Gorleston are looking for a new manager following the departure of John Musgrove for personal reasons. Musgrove handed in his resignation before Saturday's game against Saffron Walden when the Greens ended their first season back in the Ridgeons League First Division with their third consecutive home defeat.

CHRIS LAKEY

Cash-strapped Gorleston are looking for a new manager following the departure of John Musgrove for personal reasons.

Musgrove handed in his resignation before Saturday's game against Saffron Walden when the Greens ended their first season back in the Ridgeons League First Division with their third consecutive home defeat.

Speculation has suggested a possible return to Emerald Park for Gary Ingram as player-manager, with Carl Butler and Musgrove's assistant Barrie Jermy also in the running to take over a club which finished fifth-from-bottom of the table.

Whoever takes over will be forced to work within strict financial constraints which, according to chairman Jimmy Jones, have been affecting the club since the early 1990s.

Those problems hit home in December when the club scrapped its reserve team in preference to withdrawing from the Ridgeons League and dropping down to the Anglian Combination, although there will be a second string team next season.

“Next season will soon come around and I can assure you that we will be running two teams plus an Under 18 Youth team,” Jones said in a statement.

“Our second XI will be playing midweek games, commencing some time in September. This will considerably reduce the cost of running the second team. Many clubs in the Anglian Combination have told me how expensive it is to run a team in the Premiership now.”

Musgrove was appointed in January last year but couldn't prevent Gorleston from slipping into the First Division for the first time since the 1995-96 season. Many of his players departed in the summer and he was forced to put together a squad on a shoestring budget.

“I will be the first to admit that this has been a very poor season by Gorleston Football Club's standards,” added Jones.

“Rest assured that we will endeavour to eradicate our shortcomings in the future, but please be patient as we, the committee, try to make things better.

“Unfortunately, as a club we are not in the same financial bracket as many of our neighbouring clubs, therefore the players that represent us in the future will be playing not for financial reasons but because they want to play for Gorleston Football Club.”

Jones is now looking for a manager or player-manager, with applications in writing to him at Gorleston FC, 53 North Drive, Great Yarmouth, NR30 4EX.