ST NEOTS Town will be under the temporary charge of Grant Ager and Mel Hancock following the dismissal of Marvin Johnson as manager on Wednesday. Ager and Hancock will manage the first team until a new full-time manager is appointed, which the club expect

ST NEOTS Town will be under the temporary charge of Grant Ager and Mel Hancock following the dismissal of Marvin Johnson as manager on Wednesday.

Ager and Hancock will manage the first team until a new full-time manager is appointed, which the club expects to happen in the next two or three weeks.

St Neots have won just four of their last 10 games, and have won only one of their 13 away games, dropping 33 points on the road and exiting the FA Vase and Hunts Senior Cup away.

St Neots chairman John Delaney said Johnson had been sacked due to recent poor results away from Rowley Park.

"The amount of times we have played and taken the lead and not won have been far too many. We were disappointed to go out of the Cup to Eynesbury and we were two up on Saturday and surrendered two goals and two points and we should have gone up two places but went down one," he said.

"We felt that if we can't get three points at Bourne, a side that had lost their last two games and conceded nine goals, then we have a problem. We haven't won a local derby all season and we couldn't keep going on like this as it's a results business."

Johnson, who was only appointed in March 2008, said the decision was "a surprise and a shock to say the least", but "that's football".

"In general I thought results had picked up recently and when I spoke to the chairman he said the team had underachieved and hadn't been performing well recently. I believed that when I came here it was a two or three year plan but obviously they have changed their minds.

"I have no animosity towards the club and I'm not bitter but I thought they would be patient because we had a young team who needed time to develop. Of course the results are a factor as we've had some bad weather recently but in the league we haven't been defeated since January and we haven't lost at home since September.