SPENNYMOOR Town have parted company with joint managers Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley after spending just over nine months in charge at the Brewery Field.

Johnson and Morley leave the Brewery Field following defeat at the weekend in the FA Cup to Clitheroe, a team two divisions below them in the football pyramid. 

The management duo succeeded Tommy Miller in charge last December in the hopes they could mount a push for promotion out of National League North. They failed to make the top seven taking their fight to the final game of the season.

This season, Moors currently sit in 13th place in the table after just two wins this season from eight games. They currently sit three points off the play-off places.

Speaking after the weekend's defeat to Clitheroe, Morley admitted that the result was potentially sackable. He told Moors TV: "They are here off the back of four or five defeats today and you lose here today. Managers don't have the opportunity to put that right. It's the nature of the beast, everybody knows that.

"I stand here today thinking 'can I put this right?' One hundred per cent I can. That is what we get paid to do."

Moors are now on the search for their third permanent manager in just over a year.

Morley added: "The expectation at the football club is high, we and everybody around it wants to be high but make no bones about it, what we expected today we have seen in abundance. 

"A side that will fight and scrap for every second ball, a side that believed they could beat us and have beaten us. Fair play to them, they have had a right go at us. 

"Us? It's a little bit of a grey area for us. I can't put my finger on it, Johnno can't put his finger on it and the lads can't."

Club ambassador and former long serving boss Jason Ainsley will take over as interim manager and will be assisted by first-team trio James Curtis, Chris Mason and Jamie Chandler.

Ainsley spent 14 years in charge of Spennymoor guiding the club from the Northern League to the sixth tier of English football. His first game in charge will be this weekend when they make the trip to Farsley Celtic.