‘DAVID Howell was relieved of his duties purely based on the poor results of recent games.’

That is the message from co-owners Lawrence Levy and John McGowan after the former Harrow Borough boss was dismissed from the Clarence Park hotseat on Monday.

With St Albans sitting in sixth spot in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division, and only a point off the final play-off position of fifth, Howell’s dismissal may have surprised some supporters.

But co-owner McGowan is realistic enough to realise that it’s a results-based business, and in his opinion, the team’s poor run of form warranted a change.

“Any manager has to prove his worth by the results the team gets and we just weren’t getting them,” said McGowan. “We sat down with David six weeks ago, and he went through the games and where we were going to pick up points, and that just didn’t come.

“He gave us his predictions for three games which were two wins and a draw, and we lost all of them.

“David is a real gentleman, and it is certainly nothing personal and we have backed him while he has been here, but in the end the results were just not good enough.”

After being dismissed, Howell was critical of the way he was treated in the last few weeks of his tenure, yet McGowan is surprised by this.

“We [with Levy] have put a lot of money into the club, and David has had 18 months of running the team on his own with no intereference.

“It is only in the last few weeks that we have been having chats with David, and seeing how to progress.

“I can catergorically say that we have never approached anyone to replace David during his time as boss.”

McGowan also refuted suggestions the aims for the season have changed.

“No doubt the play-offs at least are the target, what else is there to aim for?

“We are in it for the long haul. Unless we are playing attractive football and getting the results, then we won’t get the supporters, and we all want to move in a new and positive direction.”