Football: County make club captain the caretaker

Notts County yesterday followed the lead set by their Premiership neighbours, Nottingham Forest, by appointing their captain as their caretaker manager.

County, next to bottom of the Second Division, have sacked the managerial pair of Colin Murphy and Steve Thompson. The chairman, Derek Pavis, who has dismissed reports that the Plymouth manager, Neil Warnock, was to return to Meadow Lane, promoted the captain, Gary Strodder, who will link with the club's record signing, Tony Agana. Murphy and Thompson are the sixth managerial casualties in Pavis's nine-year reign.

The move comes after Forest handed the responsibility for team affairs to Stuart Pearce last Friday, after Frank Clark had resigned.