West Norfolk non-league round-up: Crisis at Downham Town after manager and assistant resign

Gavin Caney Thursday, November 29, 2012
10:44 AM

An emergency meeting will be held tonight as Downham Town look to recover from a nightmare weekend.

Thurlow Nunn First Division Town were dumped out of the Norfolk Senior Cup by lower-level Reepham and then saw first-team boss Garth Good and assistant Pete Brassett resign after the game.

The pair will meet the club’s committee this evening to try and sort out the “internal matter” – just days before Downham travel to Fakenham for a league derby.

Brassett said: “We don’t want to leave. We want to keep making strides. The team is going in the right direction. There’s a real buzz about the club and results have been going well. But we can’t have these issues happening in the background. We need to move on – hopefully together.

“If the problems get solved we will be there on Saturday at Fakenham. If not, we won’t. It’s unfortunate this has happened on a week where we’d love to be organising the boys ahead of a derby game. It’s fair to say it’s D-day.”

Sam Hanslip and Matthew Castellan scored during Town’s disappointing 3-2 defeat at Anglian Combination Premier Division Reepham. One club enjoying happier times are fellow First Division side Swaffham Town who moved up to third in the table with a 4-1 triumph over Team Bury at the weekend.

Rory Harper, Joe Jackson, Alex Vincent and an own goal secured Paul Hunt’s men’s fifth consecutive victory – and their 23rd goal in those matches.

“When results weren’t going our way we were still putting in consistently good performances,” said Hunt, whose side welcome table-toppers Newmarket at the weekend.

“From box-to-box we did well but young players can make mistakes. It was never a worry as I have full confidence in our lads. Now we’ve got players back we’ve got more experience and options at our disposal.”

Elsewhere, Ang Comb Prem Dersingham Rovers put in a brave display at Wroxham – who play three levels above them -– in the Senior Cup fourth round but lost 2-1. Manager Robbie Back said he was proud of his players.