Luke Fearnall calls for AFC Telford stability

A day of changes on Wednesday saw manager Rob Smith and his assistant Larry Chambers depart, with former Wolves Under-23s coach Rob Edwards brought in as the new boss.

The upheaval spread to the boardroom with chairman Ian Dosser stepping down after a 13-year association with the club.

With talk of new investment coming in, interim chairman Andy Pryce and Fearnall will meet supporters at a fans’ forum at the Learning Centre on Tuesday (8pm).

And Fearnall believes things now need to settle down as the club prepare for the new National North campaign.

“It’s been a long week, probably been the longest week of my footballing life at Telford,” he said.

“I think I’ve been charging my phone four or five times a day, and then it culminated with the events of Wednesday and Rob and Larry going and Rob Edwards coming in.

“I think stability is key. Ian did a great job the last 13 years.

“I’m massively disappointed that he’s gone, I had a great working relationship with Ian but that leaves the board at just me and Andy and there does need to be stability.”

“The changes that are going to be forced by this investment is that we need stability at the football club, we need people that know the football club and we need to make sure that we remain on the right track – and I think we will.

“It will be a difficult few days with people digesting the news, but the people that remain running this football club are its heart and will continue to beat hopefully.”

Fearnall admits letting Smith and Chambers go was a tough decision as he played a key role in bringing them back to the club after Steve Kittrick’s dismissal in August 2015.

“I think a lot of people will say that a part of AFC Telford went with them and I totally understand those sentiments,” he added.

“We’ve got to make sure that we keep that identity and we keep that part of the football club and we keep them close to our hearts because I think they did epitomise a lot of what this football club stands for: hard work, graft, passion, pride.

“They wore their hearts on their sleeves and I think that’s what this football club’s got good at, we started to roll our sleeves up again and do the hard work and put that graft in.

“I understand the feelings and the shock of them going. I think it is felt by the whole club. not just supporters. This really has happened so fast.”