Felixstowe & Walton travel to Norwich United tomorrow afternoon in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division, searching for a new manager following the departure of first-team boss Steve Buckle this week.

Former Seasiders’ player Buckle and his assistant, Gary Thompson, were dismissed from the Goldstar Ground – the club citing that Buckle was not following the club’s ethos of giving youth a chance in the first team.

The Seasiders have taken four points from their opening four league games but were also dumped out of the FA Trophy last weekend, 1-0, by local rivals Ipswich Wanderers.

General manager Kevin Witchalls will take over in the interim period – assisted by Mark Wilding – replacing Buckle who feels aggreived by the sacking.

“I think it’s very unfair as we have been playing games with a lot of players unavailable and injured and I have not been able to get a settled side out,” said Buckle, who claimed he was made aware of his sacking on Twitter, before being informed by the club, something director of football Tony Barnes has denied.

“We have played four games and the two teams we lost against, Gorleston are fourth and Dereham are top and still unbeaten.

“We (Buckle and Thompson) were looking to finish in the top-ten at least and we had AFC Sudbury and Wroxham – two teams from a higher division – put in seven-day requests for two of our players, which I know Tony Barnes was not happy about, so that shows we are making progress.

“It was unfortunate on Saturday (the 1-0 defeat to Ipswich Wanderers) that I had to get two teams out and that left us with only 14 players for the first-team. I had to sign a couple of players to make the numbers up.”

Meanwhile, Barnes, who is also the Seasiders’ vice chairman, has explained the club will take its time before deciding on a replacement for Buckle.

“It is important, having made a decision, to take time to consider things carefully,” said Barnes.

“We are open to applicants and will probably make a short-list in the next two or three weeks time.”

Tomorrow’s opponents have taken nine points from their first five games and won 4-1 at Diss last time out.