Thetford Town chairman Nigel Armes admits the club have taken a gamble in parting ways with long-serving manager Mark Scott – but he hopes the change will have a positive impact.

Scott was relieved of his duties on Monday following a poor start to the season which left the Brecklanders bottom of the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division.

Saturday's 7-3 defeat at Brantham proved to be the last straw, taking their tally to 16 goals conceded in three matches, but Armes says it was still a tough decision.

'Mark had done a good job for us,' the Thetford chairman said.

'He took us out of the First Division but the last two or three seasons have been difficult, at the bottom of the league.

'We stayed up for two seasons because of other teams not being promoted and last year we did stay up on our own merit.

'I've worked very closely with Mark in that time and I really do think he has been an asset to us but the recent results and the enormous amount of goals we have conceded meant we had to make a change.'

Club coach Dave Skipp and senior player Ian Fancett will now take charge of the first team on an interim basis while the club's committee consider the next appointment, with applications welcomed.

The main focus for Armes is for ambitions to be raised though. The chairman has hopes of higher league positions, combined with efforts to improve the facilities at Mundford Road, to keep hold of talented local players and to pull in higher attendances from the local area.

That all starts on Sunday when the club host Bury Town in the FA Cup preliminary qualifying round (3pm).

'We should be able to get about 800 in now, with the population that Thetford has,' Armes added.

'I remember when I was a boy and my dad worked on the allotments, I would sneak through to watch and there would be 500 or 600 people.

'We're a club that do a lot of good things for the community and we care about our community.'