Taylor Sacked

Taylor, who had only been in charge of the Blues for ten months, fired a parting shot at the club's board after leaving on acrimonious terms.

"They just decided it was the best thing for the club. I'm not too pleased with that," he fumed.

"I think after ten months, it's farcical. There's some skullduggery going on."

Caretaker boss John Radford has taken the helm for the third time, temporarily stepping up from his role as the club's general manager.

He will be assisted by Taylor's predecessor, Dave Edwards, who has strangely been an ever-present at Stortford's matches since his sacking at the end of last year.

A bitter Taylor said: "I kept them [Stortford] up last year against all odds. I can walk away with my head held high. but the situation stinks to me. Perhaps I am better off out of it. It has been a load of grief."

Taylor revealed in last week's Citizen that the club had problems finding training facilities and that playing all their home matches at Borehamwood were a contributing factor in the club's dismal start to the campaign.

"I must be the only man in the history of Bishop's Stortford to play every game away from home," he said. "I've had an horrendous ten months. I think wherever I go now, I can cope with it."

The official club statement acknowledged this and read: "The board recognise the difficult circumstances that Paul Taylor has had to work under since his appointment on Octobetr 29, 1997, with the club not having the use of its own ground or proper training facilities since last Christmas, and appreciates the difficulties that this has caused."

Taylor claims that Radford has been touting for the job some while, but the former Arsenal double-winning striker denied that he wanted the job full-time, saying that he was happy with his position as general manager.

"I don't want the job permanently," Radford said. "I made it quite clear that I like the job I'm doing at the club as general manager, which involves a lot of behind the scenes work.

"When they wanted to dismiss Paul, I was asked if I would step in, and of course I said yes, but only until they appoint a new manager.

"It's as temporary as the club makes it, and that's exactly what I told the players. I might be here for a week, two days, or three months, depending on how quickly they [the board] get it sorted."

In Radford's first game in charge, last Sunday, the Blues stumbled to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Aldershot Town in the AXA FA Cup second qualifying round.

The first half was an even affair and ended goalless, but the second period sprang to life in the first couple of minutes as the Blues twice came within inches of taking the lead.

First, Scott Forbes floated in a free kick and Peter Clifford saw his looping header bounce off the top of the bar. Then another Forbes set-piece found Ernie Cooksey who hit a 25-yard shot which keeper Gary Phillips did well to tip onto the woodwork and away for a corner.

It all started to go wrong in the 59th minute. Jimmy Sugrue squared the ball across the face of goal and the hapless Clifford sliced it into the net past Gavin King. Aldershot continued to dominate and scored the second from the spot in the 77th minute after Campbell pushed Sugrue over.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.