Breaking news: Linch departs

Linch guided the club back into senior football and steered Common to their highest ever finish, but the loss of a host of senior players during the summer meant that this season was always going to be challenging.

A tough-tackling midfielder during his playing days, Linch made his first foray into management with Common in time for the 2006/07 season.

He led them to a third place finish in Sussex County Football League Division Three that term and two years later took the club into Division Two for the first time since 1993/94 courtesy of a runners-up finish.

Linch, a school teacher by profession, guided Common to an excellent fourth place in Division Two - the highest the club has ever achieved since first joining the league as Albion United in 1977 - in 2009/10.

Last season was something of a disappointment by comparison with Common only coming 13th and the loss of almost a whole team during the summer meant that Linch has had to rebuild with a squad packed full of promising but inexperienced young players.

Although Common have had a couple of terrific wins to reach the last 16 of the Sussex Senior Cup, they are out of all the other knockout competitions and only goal difference is keeping them off the bottom of the league.

Common’s reserve team manager Dale Scowen will take temporary charge for the trip to Wick on Saturday and the club hopes to name a replacement for Linch early next week.

The full article will appear in tomorrow’s Bexhill Observer.