DEPARTING boss Quentin Townsend has warned Pershore Town of the perils of taking the “Sunday morning road” – but how his exit panned out has been disputed.

A club statement confirmed Townsend had left King George V Playing Fields by “mutual consent” on Thursday, a day after the ex-Hereford United defender had hinted at moving on.

But chairman Daniel Parvin responded by claiming that the club’s committee had told Townsend it would be seeking a new management team for "a fresh outlook" and that "no discussions" were held over whether he would be a part of the shake-up.

“I felt I had taken them as far as I could when you consider the location,” said Townsend, who took over in November 2015.

“It will be made even harder with less or no money. The conversation didn’t get as far as what the budget would be, I could tell straight away that their ambition had completely changed. It didn’t come close to where my expectations were.

“I knew what would probably happen and didn’t hang around to find out how drastic the cut would be.

“It ran its course and was one of those things. I get on well with Daniel but I do feel the club is about to embark on a very dangerous slope with what they are planning.

“I fear for what will happen if they do pull the money, they want to be careful they don’t go down that Sunday morning road.”

Parvin described as "very interesting" Townsend's comments and said: "We did not talk about a change to the budget, money did not come up at all.

"The committee made it clear we would be making changes for next season and part of those involve a new management team for a fresh outlook."

Asked whether Townsend had been sacked, Parvin replied: "It was put to him that we were looking for a fresh management team. At that point Quent said thank you and I'm off.

On the prospect of Townsend staying in any capacity, Parvin said: "It could have happened but discussions along those lines were not held and haven't been since."

Parvin said Pershore's budget for next season had yet to be decided amid uncertainty over a transfer across to the West Midlands (Regional) League.

"It depends on the management team," he added.

"We have held discussions with quite a few interested parties and they have come up with different options.

"Some say they could bring in sponsorship, others suggest they could bring together a group of lads that would keep down expenditure.

"A figure has not been agreed for next season. I would prefer to bring down the cost, I feel that would make more sense but we are looking at other things that we can offer the team such as shared away transport.

"Hopefully, we will find out soon whether the proposed structure puts us into a different league. We would prefer to stay where we are.

"We don't want to be thinking about relegation. For a good half of this season we were close to the drop before a pretty decent burst pushed us up the table.

"We want to be comfortable in whichever league we are in. It would be unfair to expect a promotion push.

"We had a lot of interest. Our intention is to have something in place by the end of May to give whoever it is a good head start going into the summer."

Parvin politely declined to comment on the identity of any applicants.

On his own future, Townsend added: “I hoped my phone would ring and it has. I have put my hat in the ring for a few bits and pieces and we will see what happens.

“I don’t want to be on the scrapheap and hopefully that won’t be the case. I need to fix where I am going to be because of recruitment.”