Martin Hayes admitted despite mounting speculation he was ‘shocked’ to have been sacked as Dover Athletic manager in a Monday morning phone call.

Hayes’ side have only lost two of their opening 11 games in Blue Square Bet South, but just three wins in that spell has left them down in 12th and a poor show in a 1-1 draw at home to Havant & Waterlooville was the final straw for chairman Jim Parmenter.

Hayes (pictured) said: "I knew on Saturday night that things were not right, but I did not find out until I got a phone call on Monday morning.

"The past couple of weeks have been very tough, but it has still come as a shock. You have to have the support of the chairman, and I feel I have, but also the supporters, and I don’t think I’ve had their backing.

"We had 11 new players in the summer and systems and players take time to gel. If we’d lost six or seven games then fair enough, but we’ve lost twice. I would have liked the chance to see where we were at the end of the season and let people judge me on that.

"I fully believe that we could have turned things around - we were only five points off the play-off places with 31 games to go."