| Chichester sack manager during game • Poulton sacked by phone during second half of game• Chichester were leading Redhill 2-1 at the timeIt's not often that Chichester City make national newspaper headlines, but the Sussex County League side have achieved the feat after sacking their manager, Mark Poulton, during a game. Poulton's team were actually beating local rivals Redhill 2-1 in the second half of their Sussex Charity Cup clash when he took the call on his mobile phone."During the second half I had a call from Gary Walker, one of the directors, who said he was sorry to interrupt me and then told me I'd been sacked," Poulton told the Sun. "It could not have come at a worse time as one of my young players, Nathan Paxton, had just been taken to hospital after breaking his jaw, cheekbone, nose and eye socket in a collision with their keeper. But there had been a lot going on ever since I started at Chichester and I feared it might end like this."It's the most unprofessional and shambolic organisation I've ever been involved with. There are people there who aren't interested in the good of the club, only in waging their own personal wars. I'm deeply unhappy with the way I've been treated. I've built up a good squad and we'd started to get results."Poulton, who was told that he would be replaced by his predecessor Adie Girdler, claimed he must be the first manager to be sacked during a game, but in fact it has happened before. In 1999 the German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher was delivering a half-time team-talk to second-division side Fortuna Cologne when the club president Jean Löring stepped into the room and told him his employment had been terminated.A Chichester City spokesman told the Sun that the club had "no comment to make."Paolo Bandiniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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