MARK Maguire has resigned as Stockport County's managing director.
No permanent successor has yet been identified as replacement for the man who took over the role of MD in April 2007, working alongside boss Jim Gannon.
The club has been facing problems balancing the books in recent weeks with Maguire last month denying that County faced the danger of going into administration.
The sales of Anthony Pilkington and Jim McNulty in the January transfer window have lessened that threat.
County travel to Colchester tomorrow with Gannon hoping that new loan signing Chris O'Grady can continue to make an impact for his new side.
O'Grady, who has joined County on loan from Oldham Athletic until the end of the season, impressed after coming off the bench at half-time in Tuesday night's game against MK Dons.
"I thought Chris was an excellent addition second half," said Gannon. "On that performance he showed me he's going to be a useful addition."
Gannon suggested that he would be doing all he could to help his young players cope with the pressures of the rest of the season.
"I was very pleased with the younger players against MK Dons, Tommy Rowe, Oli Johnson and Matty Mainwaring," he added. "What's important now is to protect them.
"I'm not putting any pressure on any players. I was really pleased with their application last week.
"They went out and performed very well in difficult circumstances. It's going to be difficult on Saturday. We just have to do thing professionally keep working on the training ground on the bits and pieces that will get us results.
"So we'll do that and see what we get out of Saturday's game."
Defender James Tunnicliffe has been struggling with a shin injury while midfielder Carl Baker is waiting for an ankle operation.
Striker Peter Thompson faces another five weeks out recovering from a collapsed lung.
Gannon hopes that County can up their threat from set-pieces after a disappointing return in the 1-0 defeat by MK Dons
"The biggest disappointment for me was the quality of set-plays throughout the game," he added. "There wasn't a lot of quality to our set-plays so we'll be working at those."
County boss resigns
February 05, 2009
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Awful problems faced by county with an estimated bill of £400k still due to the I.R. in spite of paying over the money received for Pilkington and McNulty. The Trust now feel the only way ahead is to look at a move away from Edgeley Park, with a M.Maguire led consortium trying to gain control of the club. Where does this leave Jim Gannon and the remaining players. The possibility of a points penalty should the club be forced into administration, could undo at a stroke all the wonderful work put into gaining promotion last season, and would Jim want to stay to do it all again. When the trust took over it was the begining of a brave new era for the club, but it seems they did not shake out all the old skelitons and to now admit that the board did not realise how bad the finances were is a shocking admission to make.
Just read John Keighren's notes from the MK Dons game - "I don't think we will ever be in a position to buy the ground back" were his words. This from someone whose views I respect.
Where do we go from here?