Tividale manager steps down to deal with family illness (From Halesowen News)

Tividale manager steps down to deal with family illness

11:51am Thursday 14th March 2013 in Football

DEAN Whitehouse has stepped down as Tividale manager for the rest of the season because of a serious family illness, with assistant Stuart Scriven named temporary boss.

Whitehouse feels unable to committ to the football side of the job and will not be able to attend training sessions or matches, but will be on hand to assist Scriven if needed.

The interim manager will also be supported by coach Richard Upton and goalkeeping coach Chris Walwyn.

Club secretary Leon Murray said: "Dean has a serious family illness to focus on and he feels he cannot fully devote his time to managing the team.

"He hasn't quit, he's still very much part of the club and has told Stuart he's only a phone call away if help is needed."

The club are also set to punish keeper Tim Beech, who unleashed a scathing criticism of the management on Twitter following Tuesday night's 2-0 loss to Kirby Muxloe.

Tividale have struggled match the success of the previous few seasons, where they won promotion to the Midlands Alliance and carved out a fine run in the FA Vase.

Beech, one of the club's longest serving players, has since deleted the tweets which questioned the committment of the management team.

However, Murray confirmed they would investigate the issue internally and then come to an appropriate punishment for the keeper.