Read what Ben Clasper had to say in his programme notes ahead of our National League South clash with St Albans City.

When we were last together at Champion Hill we were one of ten clubs locked in the battle for survival but with Dover and Taunton looking more secure (barring a total collapse) ten has now become eight and since we have managed to re-define what a total collapse actually looks like in the past two months we must accept that as of this week we became one of the favourites for the drop for the first time when those eight are whittled down to four at the end of April.

The single point we have earned from the last ten league fixtures is not only the worst form in the division but the lowest return of any team in the top eight tiers of English football and coming away empty-handed from what became a must-win relegation six-pointer at Hampton & Richmond last weekend meant we took the decision to change the first team manager.

The decision reflects the club’s commitment to retaining our National League status and came at the end of a month-long process to give the manager whatever was needed to turn things around. Coming into February we felt that despite a downturn in results we still had the chance to deliver a respectable finish and so backed the manager with recruitment and changes to playing staff and in more recent weeks changes to approach and tactics. We work with an accurate performance monitoring model that tracks progress and a forecasting model that predicts outcomes and sadly those predictions continued to move in the wrong direction despite the best efforts of the management team. Throughout that period we also sought external advice from people with deep experience at all levels of the game to ensure the ideas weren’t restricted to those inside the club.

There have been many things that have gone wrong during my time at this club that I know could have been averted if we had taken a different path but personally this does not feel like one of those times. Everyone worked hard to avoid this outcome but while we scored an ‘A’ for effort there are no excuses, we scored an ‘E’ for achievement. If you are one of the many who think we should have acted sooner I can totally see that point of view but we all wanted to see Paul succeed and to allow as much time as possible.

This week has been another tough week. The nature of the defeat on Saturday was hard to take and I can understand the response of the fans who were there. We know the talent is there, we know what these players are capable of and our job now is to secure performances that match that potential and earn the support of the fans that we know can motivate the players as much as the team in the dugout.

Paul and I spent two hours together on Sunday morning, there was always a hope and a belief that there was a credible path out of this situation and we discussed all of the options and those discussions have continued with the board pretty much round the clock every day since but it became clear as each scenario was tested that the options with the highest chance of halting the decline would require a change of manager.

I have written before about the way the threat of relegation affects a club, it distracts, it dominates, it makes you feel guilty for spending time on anything else that could be better spent on helping the cause to stay up. Our objective with the managerial appointment now is not just to secure safety but to ensure we are never in this position again and the candidates we are speaking with would deliver that goal.

The club owes a debt to Paul, he stepped into an extremely difficult situation and delivered not only the objectives we laid out together but those he set for himself not least the unbeaten December run which I thought more than slightly challenging considering the opposition. I wish the final outcome had been different but the first team management is only one part of the club’s vision for the future to which Paul has contributed and I am confident we will see the benefit in other areas of the club.

Today the countdown begins, I know it is a lot to ask of fans to get behind the team, to continue to show support when there has been precious little to cheer in the past two months. There are still more points to play for than we have on the board so thank you for coming and thank you for being that 12th man and thank you for your support and the pep talks and pep texts.