TIGERS ROLE IS LEE’S TO LOSE

GLOUCESTER City will give interim manager Lee Mansell all the tools to make the job his own, says co-chairman Alex Petherham.

The Tigers chief made the decision to axe boss Paul Groves last Saturday evening after their 3-0 defeat at Gateshead left them second bottom in National League North.

Groves had been appointed last December with Gloucester top of the division after James Rowe departed to take over at Chesterfield.

The 54-year-old lost only one of his six league games in charge last season which saw the Tigers five points clear before the campaign was abandoned.

Hammering

They started promisingly this term with a 4-0 win over favourites York City but five consecutive defeats, including a 9-0 hammering from Chorley, prompted Petherham to act.

“We have a play-off, if not better, infrastructure around the club and we just can’t be in our current position,” he told The NLP. “It’s not what we expect and where our sights are set.

“I needed to make a decision that was hopefully putting the football club first, taking out all the emotion. Paul is a really good guy and when he came in last year he did ever so well for us, but clearly something has changed since the nulland-void result. “The fans deserve more, we’ve been so well supported this year with three gates over 2,000.” Petherham wasted no time in attempting to steady the Gloucester ship by offering the job on an interim basis to former Torquay United and Bristol Rovers midfielder Mansell on his drive home from Gateshead.

Driving seat

“He said ‘yes’ within seconds,” said Petherham. “The agreement is it’s currently an interim management position but that’s performance and results-based.

“We very much hope in five to ten games time he’s banging on my door for a permanent deal.

“I’ve known Lee for a while, when he was at Torquay, he’s from Gloucester and is known within my own immediate family circle.

“He applied for the position when James left but at that time I genuinely thought we were going to win promotion to the National League so I wanted someone I thought could guide us in that division as well.

“We’re prepared to financially back Lee to make changes, we’ve given him the keys to the kingdom and all the tools to do well. He’s in the driving seat but in the background we’ve bought ourselves a little bit of time should we need to look elsewhere.”