Bradford Park Avenue manager Benny Phillips has left the UniBond League Division One North club following a crisis meeting with the board late on Monday afternoon.
Avenue are pushing for promotion and are five points off the top with a game in hand. However, they have stumbled just lately and have taken only one point from their last three games.
The eight dropped points would have seen them as league leaders and in the only automatic promotion place.
The parting of the ways still came as a huge surprise when the statement was published.
It read: "It is with great regret that the board of directors of Bradford Park Avenue FC, following discussions with Benny Phillips and his assistants, have parted company by mutual consent.
"The board would like to thank Benny and his team for their efforts so far this season and wish them all the best for the future. In the meantime Karl Lenaghan has been appointed as caretaker manager."
Former Bradford City youth Lenaghan is currently the goalkeeping coach at Horsfall Stadium. He is the senior member of the backroom staff now that Phillips (pictured) and his assistants Lee Coathup and Wayne Porter have all left.
Phillips said: "I am disappointed to make way but I fully understand the need the club has to get out of this league and I sincerely hope they do it this season.
"Bradford is a great club, I have had a very good time there and the fans have been wonderful.
"I always enjoyed the full backing of the board in my time and Bob Blackburn, especially, was very supportive.
"He and the club deserve success for the money and sheer effort they put in. I feel I have left a very good squad of players for my successor and I will continue to take a keen interest in their results."
Blackburn, the club`s chief executive who bought a controlling share in the club last year and has put a considerable amount of his personal money into the coffers ever since, was distraught to lose his ally.
"I’m very upset about the whole scenario," he said. "I have worked closely with Benny for over twelve months and he is a true football man and a lovely person.
"It is the hardest departure of anyone in my working life and I will genuinely miss him because we used to spend eight or nine calls speaking to one another every day of the week.
"I have learned a lot from him and I hope he has learned a little bit from me, but the decision has been made and we have to move on.
"We need to win this league, not wait for the lottery of the play-offs, and recent performances have suggested that we would struggle to win the title.
"We have got the players, we have got the infrastructure and we had to act now. If we get a fresh impetus now there is still time to go straight up. Karl is only a temporary measure because we hope to announce a new manager next week."
Blackburn has been negotiating the purchase of land to site a purpose-built ground for Avenue and is close to completing the deal.
He added: "I should be cracking open the champagne but that is secondary at the moment because of this business with Benny. It is a sad state of affairs and it has taken all the joy out it for me."
