United coaching duo quit suddenly

Tauranga City United head to Auckland on Saturday with a new coach at the helm after the sudden departure of Grant Turner and John Whitley on Tuesday.
Turner and Whitley, incensed at last weekend's 2-2 home deadlock with lowly Waikuku, had promised a cull of playing personnel they believed were underperforming, with Tauranga slipping off the pace in the push for promotion in recent weeks.
Instead, after an hour-long meeting between Whitley, City United president Ron Boyle and player Ian Stringfellow at Links Ave on Tuesday, the pair quit. Stringfellow, player/coach at Tauranga for several seasons, will take over for the rest of the Northern League second division season.
Boyle blamed a lack of chemistry between the duo and their players but said comments by Whitley and Turner in Monday's Bay of Plenty Times were unhelpful and ill-timed.
"All this has been brewing for a while but I told John he'd overstepped the mark with what he said. There's club etiquette and he went outside that."
Turner and Whitley questioned the players' attitude and fight after the second successive draw at home, stating "it's not their ability we're questioning but there's a huge question mark over their ticker and attitude ... results over the past two weeks show there's no guts and no grit".
Both coaches promised to drop the players they felt were underperforming and bring in youngsters who would show more enthusiasm.
Whitley said yesterday he and Turner, who'd asked for full autonomy at the start of the season, stood behind their comments.
"Some people at the club took umbrage with the article and that's what it essentially came down to. I made it clear to Ron that if they wanted a couple of coaches who were going to pat players' heads and rub their backsides then we weren't it. That's not the way we coach or have been coached so the easiest thing was just to opt out.
"It isn't how we wanted to leave, halfway through a season with the job half done. but what I said was the truth how I perceived it - neither of us are from the touchy-feely school of coaching and some of the kids hadn't experienced that before."
Boyle said it came down to chemistry and the expectation of the coaches for their players.
"There's frustration that has been brewing on both sides - they're disgruntled and the players are disgruntled and the situation that's arisen wasn't healthy for anyone.
"Both are experienced men who are coaching more like premier league level, expecting players to be totally disciplined and maybe shooting a bit high. Both have done a fantastic job but the chemistry wasn't working between them and the players and maybe they needed to be with a group that was a bit more hard-nosed."
Young midfielder Tom Crawford transferred to Hamilton Wanderers several weeks ago but Boyle doubted any more of the side would follow.
"I haven't seen any more transfer requests come across my desk. I told the players at training (on Tuesday) what had happened and some were puzzled, while others were quite happy.
"We've still got aspirations to win promotion and we're not far off it if we win our next two games against Fencibles (away) and Hibiscus Coast (at home). We just need to get on with it now."