Farnham Town’s week of upheaval continued when they bowed out of the Specsavers Cup – and coach Dean Greenwood left the club.
Speculation was rife that Paul Johnson – who has resigned as Isthmian League club Bedfont Sports’ manager – will shortly be unveiled as the new man in charge at The Memorial Ground.
Farnham were remaining tight lipped, only confirming that Greenwood had left – and admitting that the future of coach Dan Goodall was ‘unclear’.
Johnson was seen at Farnham’s match against Alton the previous week – and he lives in Alton.
Bedfont Sports said they had ‘reluctantly’ accepted Johnson’s resignation after an ‘eight-year roller-coaster of a journey as manager’.
He oversaw an overhaul of the club after stepping up as player-manager, leading the team to promotion to the Isthmian League, losing narrowly in last year’s play-offs and enjoying FA Cup runs.
Greenwood told the players he would be leaving after Tuesday night’s cup tie and he admitted the players were feeling mentally exhausted after the upheavals of the past few days.
“I wanted to be upfront as I want to have discussions about where I go next, and I didn’t want Farnham to think I was doing it behind their back,” said Greenwood.
“It’s been a tough week and some of the players are mentally quite drained.
“It wasn’t a good performance – I told the payers it would be amazing if we could go out with a bang, but I knew they weren’t in a great place.
“I respect the fact they all turned up and we had a squad to put out, but in the first half we just didn’t get going against a young Camberley team.
“Credit to Camberley, they had a lot of energy on a tricky pitch but we didn’t really get going.
“We gave away two poor goals and although we rallied in the second half and scored a good goal, we couldn’t quite find the equaliser to take it to penalties.
“We may have deserved that but we did lack that little bit of quality.
“We had plenty of experience on the pitch so no excuses – it was a side I would have thought were capable of winning that type of game, but we came up short.
“It’s an uncertain time for players when managers leave. When Sean Birchnall left, I told the players they had to be realistic and that change was coming and none of us knew what it meant for us, but the best thing they could do is perform to secure their future or to put themselves in the shop window.
“It’s unsettling with a lot of rumours in the background – that’s not good for any changing room.
“At this level players do follow managers and that’s probably why we got some of the players we did.
“Any new manger coming in will have a sheet of half-a-dozen players they want to bring in – that’s the reality of non-league football.”
Greenwood has nothing lined up but says he would like to get back involved as quickly as possible.
“I’ve enjoyed being back in football properly and I want to get straight back in – hopefully something good comes up,” he said.