With all the omens falling into place in recent weeks the day finally came when the Harriers manager, Stuart Watkiss, found himself on his way home after only just clocking on for the day's work.    At 9:30 this morning the board released the news that Stuart was yesterdays man and the search was now on to find someone prepared to take on the task of getting us back into the Football League as soon as possible.

Stuart was originally appointed on November 30th last year with the understanding that he would be able to preserve our League status but just under nine months ago that plan had failed miserably and we now find ourselves marooned in the Conference due to a combination of apathy and lethargy from the players and the board.

Last week, probably due to frustration with an un-communicative board and a chance to force their hand, Mr Watkiss called on the fans to arrange a time and a place for a heart to heart chat.    This obviously didn't go down too well upstairs and rather than letting the fans hear something distasteful about themselves they nipped his plans in the bud with a classic example of double bluff.

The other side of the coin is that Stuart's results weren't exactly inspiring and neither were some of his signing's and tactics.    In the forty nine games played since he arrived here from Barnsley we have won just fourteen times and only on three occasions have we won consecutive games.

Although we had seen a slight improvement in results in recent weeks we were still playing poorly against sides that we should have got at least a point off (Burton?) and things had got to change soon before we found ourselves dragged beyond the point of no return and heading for Conference North.

The board have announced that the search for a new manager will begin as soon as possible and they have already received some tentative enquiries regarding the vacancy.

While this search gets underway Martin O'Connor will take charge of team matters until at least Christmas.

Meanwhile the board will continue to stumble around blindly in the dark and hoping that whoever volunteers for the poison chalice will include a self addressed envelope in his application otherwise he won't be getting an answer.