FIRST-TEAM coach John Dungworth today left Town.

The 53-year-old former Leeds Road striker had been with the club nine years – initially with the Academy and the last two years as assistant at senior level.

The news comes just 48 hours after manager Andy Ritchie also departed by mutual consent and with the list of candidates growing to take charge of the Galpharm team in their centenary season.

Town chairman Ken Davy said: “I would like to thank John for all his hard work for both the first team and the Academy, but it is important that we now look to the future to achieve our long-term aims.

“Both parties believed it was important that when the new manager is appointed, he has a clean slate and is able to shape his senior backroom staff himself. We would like to wish John all the best for the future.

“We are on the brink of our centenary celebrations and of something very exciting.

“We have one of the greatest histories in English football and with our fabulous supporter base and enviable infrastructure, we now need to look to the future.”

Martyn Booty – who yesterday took the reserves for a 3-1 defeat by Port Vale in the Pontin’s League – remains in his role as assistant coach, but Dungworth’s departure clears the decks for a new manager to bring in his own right-hand man.

Dungworth had been second in command since Peter Jackson’s original assistant, Terry Yorath, left the club in 2006.

The whole shake-up has come with owner Davy demanding fresh impetus and a string of candidates have emerged to take the managerial reins including Martin Allen, Chris Hutchings, Carlisle assistant Greg Abbott and former Galpharm striker Ronnie Jepson.

In the meantime, caretaker manager Gerry Murphy is promising a new formation and fresh personnel for the big home derby against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday in the wake of the 4-1 defeat at Oldham which proved to be Ritchie’s last match at the helm.

Murphy watched Doncaster lose 1-0 at home to Leeds on Tuesday and explained: “They play some very nice football in a 4-3-3 formation, but it usually ends up being a ‘diamond’ in midfield because James Coppinger likes to move inside a lot.

“They’ve then got Brian Stock ‘sitting’ in front of the back four for some insurance, if you like, and all the play tends to go through him.

“Ritchie Wellens is also a good passer of the ball and the whole team like to get it down and play, so I have set out our gameplan to the players.

“I’ve told them that we know our supporters will accept it if we go out and try to play, try to entertain and end up losing – it’s not the end of the world as long as we’ve given it 100%.

“If we try and lump it up the middle and end up giving the ball away, the fans won’t like it and we will be pilloried, so we are not even going to contemplate that and we are going out to play and to take them on.

“Confidence is obviously a little bit low, but we’ve got some really good players and they are all capable of moving the ball and playing it out from the back.

“Obviously we’ve got to give the keeper some options and that’s what I expect, people quickly in position to receive the ball around defence and midfield.”

Murphy reported no change on the injury front.

“I’m a big believer in announcing my team to the players early and then working on it all week,” he added.

“If you fail to prepare then you should prepare to fail, so we have been working on a different shape and I’ve also looked at moving a couple of players around. We played against the apprentices yesterday, just to get the whole thing into practice.”

David Mirfin (who scored the goal) and Joe Skarz both played just the first half for the reserves at Vale Park while Malvin Kamara was given 60 minutes on his old stomping ground.