Broxburn Athletic will head into 2023 without a manager after Chris Townsley resigned from his role in the wake of this afternoon’s 5-1 home loss to Linlithgow Rose.
Townsley, who initially joined the club as a player in 2017, had been in the role for close to three years having taken over from Brian McNaughton in 2020.
But he elected to step away from the gig after their loss in the Union Canal derby with his assistant Scott McNaughton - son of Brian - set to take on a caretaker role until a permanent successor is appointed.
And speaking after the loss today, he admitted recent performances and results have fallen short.
He said: “It was a shock. The performances have been up and down and probably not good enough.
“We’ve not lost a lot of games but the draws have killed us. There’s games we should have won and had more points.
“We’ve been a wee bit poorer in the last couple of months - albeit there’s been some games called off in December.
“We just haven’t been getting over the line and getting the performances from earlier in the season.”
As for his own status at the club, he says he’ll be having discussions during the week but admits he’d be interested in making the step up.
He commented: “I’ll speak to the committee but I’d certainly throw my hat into it. I’ll see what they say this week.”
As for the game itself, McNaughton admitted the Rose were simply too clinical after the break as Gordon Herd's side opened up an 11 point lead at the top of the East of Scotland Premier Divsion.
Mark Stowe opened the scoring for the visitors on 18 minutes but Athletic quickly equalised as Errol Douglas planted a fine header from a Jack Sayers cross into the net.
Calum Bremner wonderfully curled home from the edge of the box with the final kick of the first-half with Athletic failing to recover.
Sean Heaver doubled the lead on 50 minutes before a Ben Davidson drive from 20 yards ensured it was game over just after the hour mark. Sandy Cunningham headed home a Stowe corner in the closing stages to round out the scoring.
McNaughton said: "We lost a goal just before half-time which has deflated us. If we went in at 1-1 then maybe the second-half would have been different. I thought we were decent without creating too many chances in the first-half.
"You have to give credit to Linlithgow because they're sitting top of the table for a reason. "
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