Bristol Rovers have confirmed that manager Paul Buckle has been relieved of his duties at the Memorial Stadium.
After suffering relegation from League 1 last season, fans and the media alike had high expectations that Rovers could get automatic promotion back to the third tier at the first attempt.
After an excellent pre-season that saw the first-team squad lose only to Championship side Reading, the future was looking bright, but 24 games into the season, the club find themselves 19th in League 2, just five points away from the relegation zone.
The club's chairman, Nick Higgs, released a statement with the announcement on the official Rovers website, saying:
"We are all very disappointed that this appointment has not worked out.
"Although we are aware that we need to find stability at the club, we felt we could not go any further with the current situation as the threat of relegation was becoming too real.
"We started the season with a great deal of hope for a successful campaign, but this has not been the case so far, despite promising early form.
"Our aim this season was to strive for promotion, and that has obviously not happened, so we felt we needed to make a change.
"As many of you are aware, I am currently out of the country, but I am in constant contact with the club and will strive to make an appointment as soon as possible."
Rovers opened the season live on Sky Sports, beating newly promoted AFC Wimbledon 3-2, but the situation has since gone downhill.
Following a 2-1 defeat to Buckle's former club Torquay after the first home game, the team were booed from the pitch, and this continued for the majority of games until his departure.
The 21 new signings made since his appointment failed to gel as the Pirates inconsistent form turned into a debacle - there were heavy defeats away to Crawley and Oxford, as well as home losses to Cheltenham and Port Vale.
The last League game Rovers won came at the end of October against Dagenham, they have taken just two points from a possible 24 in the eight games that have followed.
Consecutive 1-1 draws against promotion hopefuls Southend and Swindon leant false hope to supporters, but four defeats since, have seen the club slump further.
By this time the fans were already growing tired of the lacklustre football on display and predictable excuses from the manager, who refused to accept any blame for the situation his side find themselves in, but the string of results over the holiday period was the final straw for the disgruntled support.
Rovers threw away a 2-0 lead against 23rd placed Plymouth to lose 3-2 at the Memorial Stadium on Boxing Day and the 5-2 thrashing dished out by Crewe at the same venue on New Year's Eve left the manager's job hanging by a thread.
A third defeat in a week, away at Barnet, proved one step too far for the board, who sacked the 41 year old on Tuesday.
It wasn't only the on-pitch performances that drew grief from supporters, a high profile fall-out with former captain Stuart Campbell resulted in the fans favourite being released after seven and a half years at the club. That was the pinnacle of a number of clashes between manager and players, which also saw Jo Kuffour leave on loan for Gillingham, where he proceeded to score seven goals in 13 appearances.
Assistant manager Shaun North will take charge of the FA Cup third round tie against Premier League Aston Villa on Saturday, which will be shown live on ESPN.
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