Enfield Town FC boss announced he would be standing down following club’s relegation from National League South, writes Andrew Warshaw

Gavin Macpherson is leaving Enfield Town after three years

It isn’t every day that an outgoing football manager who has just been relegated has his name sung to the rafters.

But that was precisely the reaction of the fans towards the hugely popular Gavin Macpherson at Enfield Town’s final home game of the season as their two-year stay in the second tier of non-league football came to a sad end.

After three years at the helm, Gavin has stepped down, along with the rest of his management team, and the search for a replacement was well under way as the Dispatch went to press – with a number of potential applicants having thrown their hats into the ring.

Rebuild, reset and go again will be the mantra but whoever takes over will have the unenviable task of trying to emulate gaining promotion to National League South, unexpectedly achieved under Gavin at the end of his first season.

Keeping Town in the division for a second campaign was arguably an even greater accomplishment but it was third time unlucky as the club were unable to pull off another escape act – and now return to step three of the non-league pyramid.

“The club are extremely privileged to have had Gavin as our manager,” chairman Paul Reed told the Dispatch when discussing the legacy left behind. “He demonstrated many qualities that we feel will become pre-requisites for future appointments. Perhaps the biggest of these is his deep understanding and connection to the DNA of our club.

“Being supporter-owned brings unique challenges and opportunities and Gav was very quickly able to grasp this. It’s clear from the bond that he formed with our supporters that they all feel he was ‘one of us’.

“Gavin also was able to build really strong relationships with our academy resulting in a number of our young scholars making their first-team debuts during his tenure. As we grow this is going to be a vital collaboration for our playing side and he has left a really strong pathway for this to continue.

“The promotion to step two highlighted a number of areas where we need to improve and get stronger […] and his spell at the club has allowed us to identify these and work on getting better and more prepared for when the club are able to bounce back to this level.”

Few who attended that final home game, an extraordinary and emotion-filled 5-2 rout of Slough Town, can fail to have had a lump in the throat, such was the outpouring of gratitude surrounding the end of an era.

Gavin said afterwards: “Managers always talk about their supporters being the best and while I don’t want to get over-soppy, they’ve been unbelievable, way beyond what I imagined given the struggles this season.”

He explained that, with a heavy heart, he had turned down efforts to keep him on at the club.

“Unfortunately we haven’t achieved our ultimate aim but I’m going to miss everyone terribly. I just believe things need a fresh pair of eyes.”

Whoever those eyes ultimately belong to is now the focus moving forward. For his part, Gavin was still pondering his future as the Dispatch went to press. But wherever he ends up, he has permanently carved his name into the annals of the country’s first fan-owned club.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.