Sorry Liam, can't agree on the " some of the best football I've seen at the Pilot Field" statement. Lets remember we have won 8 of our last 42 league games and were the second lowest goal scorers in non league football at Ryman and above.
I think the timing is a disgrace but there has to be more to it. I was not one of those calling for Sean's head last season, although desperately unhappy with what was going on, but could see only one outcome this season with the signings made. Sean made no indication at the fans forum and seemed as determined as ever to prove his detractors wrong, so can only assume it is down to a breakdown between himself and Dave Walters.
I keep harping back to DW'S half time speech at the end of last season when he promised the supporters he would throw some FA Cup cash at getting straight back up. This has never materialized, so did DW not keep his promise and not give Sean the money? or did Sean not take it and tried to do it his way? What is the real reason behind nearly all of last years squad leaving? Whatever has happened we now look deep in the s**t. Our squad is desperately poor, we have no decent strikers and have now lost our best and most reliable defender.
I am sure the truth will eventually come out and i wish Sean all the best for the future. I, like Pat, look back on the FA Cup run as one of the best experiences of my life and will never forget those moments, which whether people agree or not, Sean has to take major credit for. But last away game, at East Thurrock, when we finally realized we were down, it would have been the ideal time for him to step down and lead us into the new season as captain.
What a mess we are in.
-- Edited by johnw on Wednesday 7th of August 2013 06:11:40 PM
Am I missing something? "Sean Ray has this morning offered his resignation from his role as First Team Manager of Hastings United, and that this has been accepted"
What a shame. I honestly wish him well. Sean gave me arguably the best football experience of my life at Harrogate and Middlesbrough and the FA Cup run, sadly the league suffered as a result. Cant have been easy the last few months for him at all. I do hope we are able to build from this quite quickly as it is vital that we get off to a good start.
All I can say is good luck to Sean, and the hard work he has put in throughout the last season and a half as player manager, inspirational player aswell, just annoyed that this comes 3 days before chipstead game and start of the season, very unclear on the reasons why he felt he had to leave?? Also our centre defence looks abit ominous now gulp!!
Poor timing! As I said many months ago the change should have been forced in January. I am very angry about this, not that he has gone but the timing of it. I want to add more but think I will calm down first!
Best news we have had in a while, whilst respecting the time and effort Sean put it, that alone does not make a good manager or coach. Hopefully we will get a manager who can attract a better quality of player.
He would have known he was going to quit ages ago. To do it now after the club stuck by him is disgraceful. He will end up playing somewhere like Lewes while laptop has himself sorted with Bromley. The two mugs that were partly responsible for our relegation will end up fine, Sean as he can still do a job on the field and laptop because he is a professional brown noser! Us fans though will stay and watch us in this crappy division. Blood boiling!
Good luck Mark and Terry for the weekend, let's really get behind these guys!
i cannot say anything about the qualities as a manager but the timing is very poor. i think we now need a people's manager for saturday's game to shake things up. I really hope this will have not so much influence on the rest of the squad but that is doubtful.
Got to say I am simply stunned by the timing of this.
Surely the time to go would have been straight after the last game of the season. To stay on through the summer and go now seems ludicrous. There MUST be a story behind all this.
I did question some of Sean's qualities as a manager.... Certainly not his commitment but his contacts (vital in the non-league game) and, at times, his tactics/team selection.
But that doesn't mean I'm 'dancing' tonight. As Pat said, the FA cup experience is something we'll all treasure for the rest of our lives and no doubt, the Razor factor played no small part in that success. He was always and still is a damned good centre half and always worth half a dozen goals per season.
I for one will be sorry to see him go and wish him well.
No idea who we are likely to get at this time of the year. I guess we have to wait for the first round of managerial casualties sometime round mid October !
I think it's rude and disrespectful to be saying about how brilliant this decision is and how people could be 'dancing in the streets'. I think the decision has come at a really bad time unfortunatley and I am fairly saddened by the news. I didn't see it coming and it seems that it's really out of the blue.
Sean has brought in what I believe to be some of the bes football for a while that I've seen at the Pilot Field and a truly remarkable FA Cup Run and fantastic players like Bradley Goldberg and Matt Armstrong-Ford.
People have also said on here that they expect he will stay on as a player, however I enterpreted "Everyone at the Club would also like to wish Sean all the very best for the future." To be different.
I would like to personally thank Sean for his efforts and as soon as I know more about what's happened and the reason for the resignation then I will write about this. Sean's efforts as manager did come under scrutiny at the end of last season and the decision to keep Sean on as manager, in my opinion, was brave. The timing of this wasn't brilliant, but Sean has had a long time to think about this over the course of the pre-season friendlies.
I really do hope that we will be seeing Sean in the claret and blue shirt from Saturday and hope he stays on. We all need to get behind Mark and Terry and give them the support they need and deserve. Let's do this!
It's sad to see Sean go, I am shocked at the same time and it's at a terrible time I think if he had this in plan should of done it much earlier as left us in the **** didn't think he was coping well as a player and a manager one or the other hopefully see him playing in the clarent and blue soon
Like others, I did not see this coming - at least at this point. I was hoping that Sean would, as he said he would, build a local based team that would achieve success; if not in this season then in the next or the one after that.
I appreciate that others had no confidence that that could be achieved. All useful arguement about that is, however, now gone.
I agree with Johnw's comments above that the reasons - or at least some of them - for Sean's most untimely departure will surely emerge. It would be idle to speculate about that until we know more. All that is clear is that we are indeed now in a real mess. All that we can usefully do in the short term is to support the team and to hope that this season isn't utterly damned before it starts.
like john w I still have that statement of DW ringing in my ears,was the money not forthcoming or did sean stand by his belief that a promotion side could be build from local talent,if the former maybe more heads should roll.Like others think we need more information on why as don't understand why sean should pick now.
This has come as a huge shock to all of us. I'm not sure if the players knew anything about this and was this decision already made before the newhaven game. Who will next be in charge. No one knows. I wish all the best to Sean he put a lot of effort into the club and have us all a great experience in the fa cup run. But the season starts in Saturday and as hard as it sounds everyone needs to try and put this behind them and get behind terry and mark. 3 points Saturday and then the same Monday! Coyu
Terrible timing,as said why not do it at an earlier time to give the club a chance to sort it out?really can only think he decided to resign because of the squad he has put together and realised they will struggle to compete.Unless it sumthing else only time will tell maybe a falling out has occurred.
Fantastic cup run though but that was just papereing over the cracks.Struggled at both ends of the pitch last season and it don't seem to be any different so far even though it only pre season but Peacehaven beat Newhaven 9.2 in a a freindly so what does that say about us?,and you want players to be in form ahead of a league campaign that we were spose to be favourites for the title and challenge? just hope sumone comes in and stabilises the club because the way its going its all downhill from here if not careful.
Thanks no1 this is crap season hasn't started yet for Christ sake give your team smell support as we are supporters surely .what has happened is not good but if you aren't behind your team then they are not playing for you come on Hastings support believe get behind them come on Hastings
As much as I respect everyone's opinion, I just cannot see where you thought we were heading with Sean the players in general are clearly not good enough, we have a good budget if the fans forum was to be believed, luckily in our level of football most players aren't on contracts, so given the right manager we can still get into the play-offs but I feel a slow start which is likely will make winning the league very difficult.
wow, did not see that coming but a relief. Timing 6month to late but better late than never. time may never be right but at least we have chance of new manager having most time to get things right. the friendlies have shown little to be excited for especially in front of goal and defense not solid and players do not look fit. So maybe Rays heart never up for fighting to get back up and friendlies and last 6 weeks has made his mind up that best if he go. appreciate he got us great memorys of cup run but think that more down to players and his antics on pitch and off with officials was poor in leading by example, contacts not great in getting better player in this season. from forum summary looks like players did not want to come back and play as they did not contact him or he fell out with them.
Well I for one will NOT be supporting the club anymore, as I will damn well NOT be giving a single penny of my money to that ****** chairman!! I believe we should boycott the club until HE quits. I feel like I really dont know the club anymore and am completely gutted that Sean has gone. WALTERS GET OUT!!!!!
For once, I think I agree with ChrisB. Sean has resigned as it's stated on the Club website. Or do you really know something that even Sean doesn't know?
No I simply meant that we all know what a money grabbing ****** the chairman is, and I have so much respect for Sean. I am not prepared to line the chairmans pockets anymore until he goes.
Until we know what the reason (s) where behind Sean tendering his resignation yesterday Becks it's impossible to know who's to blame ( if anyone )
The timing however is terrible regardless and even if we had got through the first few games of the season first it would have been preferable.
Despite people's reservations about the squad there are some potentially good players and if they leave due to this ( as Sean signed them ) then we will have a even worse problem than before.
We all know this should have happened at the end of last season but better late than never.
Doubt if he just resigned suddenly. Did he get a shove in the back as i heard a rumour of recently, was it planned by Sean as if he is off to Lewes surely that must have been in the pipeline for some time. If he goes there then it will be interesting as a couple of our old players are there who have not been best pleased with him in the passed. If he he did go of his own accord it should be remembered that it is not the first time he has left in the club in the lurch after sigining for Ashford and Rye in the past.
All that aside in my opinion (which I am entitled too) it is a step in the right direction to get the club moving in the right way again lets hope a manager of vast experience is finally appointed to get us where we should be.
In the mean time lets get 100% behind Terry and his team.
Hope the reasons why Sean has resigned are made clear so that supporters don't have to resort to speculation. The sooner the reasons are made clear the better.
Hope the reasons why Sean has resigned are made clear so that supporters don't have to resort to speculation. The sooner the reasons are made clear the better.
According to the Observer today, Sean did not want to leave HUFC but following a 'CHAT' ??? with the Chairman it seems that he was forced to resign. He obviously has no wish to leave the club, (at least as a player) so surely the club should make every effort possible to persuade him to stay.
Why? He is clearly not up to the task, the chairman has at last seen what some of us saw last season, we were failing badly. The stats show it, the performances show it, and anybody who takes sentiment out the equation knows it.
In my opinion Sean Ray is a very good and reliable Ryman South and Ryman Premier centre half. Lot's of clubs will be interested in him as a player. I think it's fair to say he struggled in management and would be the first to say he has learnt a great deal. I wish him well wherever he goes.
I hope the bad experiences of management will be learnt from, I am sure that when his playing days are over he will give it another go whether it be managing or coaching. I hope good experiences (FAC) are remembered fondly.
well glad he gone and the observer not really giving many clues but a convrsation with a friend who said he spoke to a player said that Ray hardly ever at training and was not at one of friendly game. so is that reason why paper say chairman phoned manager and manager in another tantrum not with a ref lost his cool and resigned?
or are their other things that anyone else know? really thought the paper would reveal all and strange the paper had no comment from club on their side of story.
as i said this all 6 months to late. i am sure if ray been asked to leave in february when league form never got better after cup then we would still be in prem and we might have been challenge for conf south this season.
Sean Ray claimed his position had become untenable after resigning as player-manager of Hastings United.
The 32-year-old called time on 21 months in The Pilot Field hot seat on Wednesday - just three days before the start of the Ryman Football League Division One South season.
Assistant manager Mark Stapley and coach Terry White will take charge of the side for the opening day trip to Chipstead tomorrow (Saturday).
Speaking on Wednesday evening, Ray said: “There’s been a few issues that have arisen over the last week or so. I was at work this morning and got a phone call from the chairman (Dave Walters). We had a chat and afterwards it became clear my position was untenable. I offered my resignation and it was accepted.
“It’s something I didn’t want to happen and it’s something I didn’t expect to happen. I thought my relationship with the chairman was okay. I’m not going to say anything bad about him or the club.
“There’s nobody else that club means more to than me. It was a wrench to leave first time around when I went to Ashford and it’s even more so now. I’ve always given my all for the club and I’m sad to be leaving.”
It seems unlikely that Ray, who has made more than 300 United appearances, will stay at The Pilot Field as a player under whoever the new manager may be.
“It’s very doubtful,” continued Ray, who is on the verge of resuming training following a close season knee operation. “I certainly won’t rule out staying at the club as a player if the right terms come along, but I’ve already had three good offers to carry on playing that I need to look into.
“There’s another person that I will be speaking to again and he’s said he would be interested in taking me over to where he is. I’m going away tomorrow (yesterday) morning only for two days to meet up with my partner and think about what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it.”
Ray’s departure comes just seven months after United’s unforgettable FA Cup journey ended with a valiant third round defeat to Championship big guns Middlesbrough, an occasion which he says now “seems like a previous life”.
“We were only one or two players away from having a good squad,” Ray added. “Mark Stapley has been really, really good for me, and I just hope he gets looked after now. He does that job for nothing and the club needs men like him.”
United will play their first home game of the new term against Walton Casuals on Monday night.
