Sacked Southall hits back

In the week that his old club Everton decided upon a change at the helm, Neville Southall suffered a serious setback in his pursuit of a managerial career.

The former Welsh international goalkeeper has been sacked after a brief and turbulent spell as manager of the Nationwide Conference's bottom club, Dover Athletic. Southall, whose first game in charge of the Kent club was as recently as Boxing Day, did not go quietly.

"I found out about my sacking when I got a call from a Press Association reporter," the Welshman said. "He told me I'd been sacked, but I knew nothing about it. I rang the club and [director] Jim Gleeson asked me to resign, but I declined because I had done nothing wrong. So he said I was sacked."

Dover are losing about £2,000 a week and, after a recent boardroom upheaval, a new board of directors have taken control. The new regime has insisted that the decision to sack Southall was taken primarily for footballing reasons, although Roger Knight, another director, admitted: "There were other reasons."

Southall has blamed the club's general manager, Bill Williams, for his sudden exit, saying: "Bill Williams has stood in my way since my appointment. He told me to cut my wage bill by £1,000 a week, days after saying I could bring players in, and also tried to tell me who to play in the team.

"He has always told people he doesn't want to be the manager of the side, but secretly I think he does," the Welshman added. "I wasn't sacked for football reasons. Everyone knows the team was improving and that we still had a chance of staying up."

Williams, who is also a non-executive director of Dover and is a former manager of Maidstone United, said: "I'm receiving unfair flak at the moment and am sorry Neville feels the way he does. But I'll wait until all the dust has settled before saying anything further."

Clive Walker, a former Northampton Town manager who was No 2 to Southall, has taken over at Dover and will try to secure three points at home to Hereford United tomorrow.

The only surviving non-Conference side in the FA Umbro Trophy, the UniBond League leaders Burton Albion, entertain Chester City in the quarter-finals tomorrow.