Wealdstone have been forced to axe first-team coach Matt Saunders due to financial reasons but manager Dean Brennan was keen to thank him for his efforts.

Saunders will stay on as Stones academy manager but will come off the first-team books in order to help the club remain financially stable as they look to bolster their squad instead.

The boss revealed the money has to be used in terms of playing budget as they had to improve in order to compete at National League level.

“Matty is a fantastic coach, he’ll stay with the youth team, he’s a great guy but financially we just can’t afford to pay him. There is no point in me lying,” Brennan admitted.

“Financially we’re not in a great position because we don’t have any supporters, we don’t have any revenue coming into the bar, we’ve got a social club at the football club that we can’t maximise right now so it’s very hard.

“The money has got to go towards players and nobody else. I’m not full-time, Stuart Maynard is not full-time, we have businesses and jobs away from football.

“It’s a tough decision that falls on my lap obviously with the advice of the board, but I want to thank Matty for everything that he has done, it’s not nice to make them phone calls and have them conversations but that’s my job unfortunately.

“I’ve got to do what’s best for the team and what’s best right now is that we need players.”