John Embery says he and Jermaine Darlington quit Herne Bay because it was the only way to end all the negativity currently surrounding the Bostik South East club.

Both board and management have come in for criticism and abuse via social media in recent weeks and Embery admits it had got to the point where enough is enough.

He said he and co-manager Darlington were ‘gutted’ to be leaving Winch’s Field after just under two years in charge, but he hoped their resignations, tendered last Friday, would be the cue for people to rally round the club.

Embery explained: “We’re disappointed to have left but we felt it was in the best interests of the club and in particular the board who have been getting a lot of unfair criticism.

“Jermaine and I just wanted be left to run the team, but the football was becoming secondary, it was more about politics.

“We’ve got broad shoulders, we can take criticism but we were getting sick to the back teeth of it with John (secretary John Bathurst) and and Ron (treasurer Ron Boddy), without them this club would have folded.

“Sometimes you’ve got to make a call for the good of the club, by stepping away from it we hope it will relieve the pressure on John and Ron and give them one less aggravation. They’ve done a lot for us and we felt this was the right thing to do for them.”

Much of the criticism aimed at the board and management has not been over results – Bay have lost just once in seven matches – but more to do with the transfers of Jake Embery and Tom Carlton, and the decision to let Ben Gorham play for Canterbury City in the FA Vase.

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Embery said: “It’s a great club and the majority of fans have been great, but there will always be a few who just moan.

“We’ve turned relegation form into promotion form since Christmas but we were still getting flak.

“Some of the stuff going around about Jermaine and me was outrageous and most of it was done without people knowing all the facts.

“People, who should have known better, were saying things based on assumptions and then you get players and fans wondering what’s going on at the club, it just snowballs.”

Embery and Darlington left with Bay in 16th and clear of relegation and the bulk of the squad assembled by the pair are expected to remain until the end of the season.

Embery explained: “I could understand people hounding us if we were bottom of the league but we left the club in a good position.

“I just hope people now get behind the board because at the end of the day the most important thing is that the club survives.”

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