Dunn’s fury

Oct 9 2008 by Philip Kirkbride, Ormskirk Advertiser

A RAGING Joey Dunn has launched an attack on Burscough chairman Chris Lloyd following the manager’s sacking on Monday night.

Dunn has branded the decision to dismiss him, after just 13 competitive games in charge, as “morally corrupt” and is convinced Lloyd was “hatching a plan” behind his back.

With Andy Mutch immediately installed as the new Linnets boss, Dunn believes the club will experience an exodus of players following a decision which he says “stinks”.

The departed Linnets boss ends a two-and-a-half year coaching association with the club and has directed his tirade at just one man - Chris Lloyd.

Dunn said: “The decision to sack me is rubbish and doesn’t stack up, there’s no rhyme nor reason. It is a complete change from four weeks ago when I had a meeting with Nick Killeen, Chris’s deputy, and we were talking about me going on the board and even if we got relegated and then relegated again, I would still stay as manager.

“The whole thing stinks, it is scandalous.

“I had a face to face meeting with Chris on Friday and he said how we were under pressure and that results had to improve. I said I knew this and if he needed to tell me then I shouldn’t be the manager.

“They need a big dose of reality because when I took over we had a six-a-side team and I have brought in quality players. It has not been easy but there are teams three leagues below us who pay more money - I had both hands tied behind my back.

“There has been a massive improvement from where we have come from to where we are now - I left the meeting fuming on Friday night, I was dumbstruck and it came across to me that the axe was swinging.”

Dunn says the following morning he received a call from Lloyd apologising for the meeting and gave the boss his “100 per cent” backing.

Lloyd even rang to congratulate the Burscough boss after Saturday’s fine 1-0 win at Hinckley United.

But at 5.30 on Monday evening Dunn received a phone call from Lloyd informing him of the decision to sack him.

Dunn said: “When Chris told me, I said to him that it was totally unreasonable but he said that a new board was coming in and they wanted their own man. I told him he had lied to me for a long time and that he was lying to me now. He never said thanks to me either.

“I said from the start that me winning the league was finishing fourth from bottom but a plan has been hatched behind my back with everybody knowing what the end was going to be, apart from me - it is morally corrupt. From July to now, the whole thing has been a joke and the decision has nothing to do with football.”

On Monday evening Dunn held a meeting with his players informing them of the chairman’s decision.

The squad were said to have been “horrified” with the news and Dunn has already hinted that he believes many will not be around to welcome in the new era under Mutch.

Dunn’s parting words were: “The spectators have been great and I can’t fault them. Burscough are my favourite non-league club I have played for but I have got no allegiance to them now. The club are back to July and I associate the decision with one man.”

Chris Lloyd responded by saying: “Yes, we did have a meeting on Friday night but this is not just about results, I felt the way the club was being run was not acceptable.

“As chairman you have to make decisions that might be unpopular to begin with but you have to look at the whole structure of the club.

“Andy Mutch is the right man at the right time and this is the right decision to take the club forward.