Trinity inundated with applications to replace Roma as manager

But chairman Richard Lane said he would make sure he got the right man and avoid a panic appointment.

“I am going to take my time and see who’s about,” said Lane.

“We have been inundated with applications – some very credible ones in there, some surprising ones, which is good.

“I will be having a look this week and hopefully we’ll be able to do one or two interviews before the end of the week and then we’ll see from there.

“I want to make sure I get the right person and don’t want to do just a kneejerk reaction.”

Roma’s resignation came a day after a 2-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Alfreton Town halted a four-game unbeaten run for Trinity and again left them just four points off the drop zone.

It also came in the week leading up to another vital clash against relegation-threatened opposition at Bradford Park Avenue this Saturday when Adam Quinn and Matt Wilson will be in temporary charge of first team matters.

“We certainly won’t have a manager appointed by Saturday, which is a bit of a shame as we are going into a real six-pointer unfortunately,” said Lane.

“But that’s where we are so we are just going to have to go with what we’ve got and do what we can do. Onwards and upwards.”

Roma, who clocked up his 200th league appearance as a player for the club in January, was appointed full time manager in the summer after a stint as caretaker towards the end of last season.

But it is understood that a busy home life and work as a teacher had made it an increasingly difficult juggling act.

However, Lane said: “I didn’t see it coming and I am still a bit shocked to be honest.

“He just rang me out the blue and said he’d been giving it some thought about his family life and stuff.

“I do get it. People don’t realise that non-League football is not just about a Saturday. It’s a seven day a week thing, which I know first hand.

“I am talking to him daily at all times, sometimes I have been getting out of bed at 10pm when he’s rung me to talk about something and I’ve had to sneak into another room to take the phone call.

“He has two very small children and he was saying he wasn’t seeing them sometimes for two or three days.”

He added: “Dom has cited that. But I know that people on social media don’t leave you alone and it eventually grinds you down. I think there is an element of that as well to be honest.”

Trinity now face a race against time to secure their National League North safety.

“Staggeringly on the last Saturday against Harrogate it was, in my three years as chairman, the best performance I’d seen from a Gainsborough Trinity side,” said Lane.

“Then on the Saturday just gone it was arguably the worst performance I’d ever seen, but it’s the same team so you wonder how the hell can that be?”

Names like ex-Worksop boss Mark Shaw, former York City and Scunthorpe United manager Russ Wilcox and ex-Boston United boss Dennis Greene are among the early names on the rumour mill, but Lane had not seen applications from any of them as yet.

Lane said: “I have had loads but I haven’t seen those names coming through, so we will see.

The board invite applicants to Richard Kane c/o Stallard Kane Associates, First Floor Offices, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, DN21 2BL or via email to [email protected]