Football manager sacked during second half of match

Chichester City are a club in chaos after phoning their manager midway through the second half of a game and telling him he was sacked. Manager Mark Poulton was staggered to take the call as he was directing the team in their RUR Charity Cup game at Redhill and as he tried to deal with a seriously-injured player going to hospital.

He was axed after just three months in the job against a background of infighting and power struggles at the Oaklands Park club. Poulton said: "The club are a complete mess and a shambles. I'm better off out of it."



The former Hayling manager, who was preparing to pay his players out of his own bank account because they were not being paid by the club, said he had never heard of a manager being sacked during a game. "It was during the second half. I had a call from Gary Walker, one of the directors, who said he was sorry to interrupt me and then told me I'd been sacked.

"When I told the players after the game, which we lost 4-2, the majority said there was no way they would continue playing for the club. We were trying to deal with a serious injury to a young player, Nathan Paxton. In the first half he'd had his face shattered in a collision and had to go to hospital."