Dover advertise first team coach vacancy

DOVER ATHLETIC chief executive Mick Kemp has revealed the club are advertising the position of first-team coach after Richard Langley was relieved of his duties on Saturday evening, writes Justin Allen.

The club were forced to remove Langley from the post after fans made it clear after the Northwood match that they were not prepared to see the manager continue after six Ryman League Premier Division defeats on the bounce.

Kemp admits: "We did have a timescale in mind to allow Richard to continue but it was clear from the fans that he had to go after the Northwood match. Perhaps we would have gone another few games but we do have to listen to the fans and they wanted him out.

"Richard is understandably disappointed but we are talking to him at the moment and it's not been decided whether he will actually leave the club or not. He might stay on in another area but we'll see. It's up to Richard at the end of the day."

Kemp has already been taking calls from people interested to take charge at Dover but he said: "I've told them to put their applications in writing. We have advertised the job and will take applications until September 27. We'll then go through them and interview the top candidates.

"Dover Athletic, despite our problems, are still a desirable club. We have a great fan base, lovely stadium and a superb youth set-up. The brief for the new man is simple - keep us up in the Ryman Premier and get us promoted next season.

"We always had next season in mind for promotion. Finances were going to make it tough for us this term but now we just hope to get through this one away from relegation and erase the CVA problem we have at the moment."

One creditor, who it must be stressed is not a major creditor, has pointed out to the CVA supervisor that the club are duty bound to pay half of its 2002-03 FA Cup profits towards their CVA debt immediately. This is to accelerate the club's payments.

However, the money raised, around £46,000, was used by the club to cover other debts and running costs. And without these funds, Dover Athletic would have not got through the season and would have ended up being wound up there and then.

Kemp said: "The CVA supervisor doesn't believe we should pay off this whole amount in one sum so we are hoping that their meeting reflects this. We wouldn't have been able to get through that season if we didn't have these funds. It wasn't extra money we had - it had to be used to pay off other debts and running costs.

"However we need 75 per cent of the creditors to agree with us and I believe we had 65 per cent at their last meeting."

As for media speculation linking former boss Neville Southall with the manager's post, Kemp added: "If Nev writes in, we will consider him like everyone else. A club's profile will be raised by results on the pitch and commercial activities will benefit from that too. The new manager will not be a commercial man, just a person who can get this team winning matches."

Dover Athletic are delighted with the positive response from fans after revealing the CVA situation on Saturday afternoon. 

Fanzine editor Andy Stevens and his team are to produce a new issue of Dover Soul for the FA Cup Preliminary Round clash against AFC Wimbledon on 18th September.  He is pledging all profits from the sale of the publication will go towards the Save Dover Athletic Football Club Fund.

www.doverathletic.com