Brett Agnew: It was a tough decision to leave Bridlington Town manager's role

The Queensgate club revealed the player-manager’s intention to leave Town at the end of the current season, as Agnew feels he needs a new challenge.

The 32-year-old, who has been in charge for four seasons, is very keen to move onto pastures new without a relegation on his CV so he is urging his players to help him finish his tenure at Brid by maintaining their NPL East status.

He said: “It was a very tough decision for us to come to, my assistant Joe Lamplough and myself, as we will be moving on as a management duo if we get another club next season.

“I have also been talking a lot to my wife about it in recent weeks so it has been something that I have been thinking about for a while.

“I feel that as a young manager I need a new, fresh challenge now.

“I also have the option of carrying on as a player for three or four seasons if a manager’s job does not come up, so I will keep my options open.

“I wanted to announce it at this stage so that Pete Smurthwaite as chairman has plenty of time to line up a replacement and it also gives the players a chance to showcase their talents to this club or others for next season.”

Agnew’s focus is firmly on on finishing the job on a high note by keeping the Seasiders in the NPL East.

He said: “We now face six crucial matches starting with Ossett United at home on Saturday and Brighouse Town on Tuesday, also at home, and if we can get four points we’ll be well on the way to staying up.

“If we can win both of these we will almost be there but the recent form of the likes of Sheffield makes it uncertain

“Sheffield have had some good results and Tadcaster got a huge win against Hebburn last weekend.”

Agnew admitted that the 1-1 draw at title-chasing Liversedge was a fair result as both sides missed good chances in the clash.

He said: “They missed one sitter from just two yards just before half-time then had a free header too, but late on Andy Norfolk could have won it for us and then we had a stonewall penalty turned down late too when there was a clear foul on me.

“On the basis of those chances a draw was a fair result, their first miss was probably the miss of the season so maybe we had a bit of luck but we certainly deserved it after their very lucky draw at our place.

“We battled well and it was a good all-round performance from the lads.

“Jaz Goundry did very well on his first game back with us though understandably it took him a while to settle back in.

“The lads from Hull, Olly Green and Louis Beckett, both looked very good again for us too.”

The Seasiders will welcome back Nathan Hotte for this weekend’s game with Ossett, while Danny Earl may be back in contention if he recovers sufficiently from his hamstring injury.

Agnew added: “These two home games coming up are massive.

“I said to the lads last Saturday that they need to put in 100% and they need to fight for their futures and this continues to be the case for every game in this six-match run-in.”