St Neots Town chairman Lee Kearns has issued a public thank-you to manager David Batch following his departure tonight.

Batch has stepped down after just over a year at the Saints helm and his exit continues a spell of major change at the Southern League Premier Division club.

It arrives less than a month after Kearns took control of the club from his father, Mike, and comes only days after Saints appointed Iain Parr as director of football.

Parr has been placed in charge for a home Southern League Premier Division clash against Chippenham on Saturday. A former Saints boss and director of youth development, Parr also oversaw their Hunts Senior Cup semi-final exit at the hands of St Ives Town on Tuesday night.

Kearns said: “The club would like to go on record and thank David and his management team for all the hard work that they have put into the club over the last 12 months.

“Iain Parr, our director of football, will take charge of Saturday’s game against Chippenham Town.

“Our intentions are for myself and Iain to work with a new management team that will be appointed until the end of the season at which time we will undertake a full review of the first team, it’s structure and how we would like to take this part of the football club forwards.

“I’m hopeful that we will be in a position to announce the new interim management team in the next 72 hours.”

Kearns claimed St Neots were ‘lucky’ have a manager as ‘ambitious and conscientious’ as Batch in a recent Hunts Post interview.