Following the decision of Scott Armstrong to step down, Oldland Abbotonians are pleased to confirm the appointment of former player John Toy as first team manager.

Having reluctantly accepted that Scott Armstrong could no longer commit the required time to the role the club had to act swiftly. A spokesman said "In a funny way, the incorrect rumour mill and comments on social media or to the local press from people outside the club worked in our favour as a number of people approached us ahead of any actual vacancy, in fact two or three who had expressed an interest watched our midweek game against Bristol Telephones."

New manager Toy played for the club for several years before moving on and is well known in the area with a huge number of local contacts. He recently turned down another Western League job and is looking forward to the challenge. He said "Continuity is the key, there is not a lot wrong here and as Scott knew it's hard when you can't compete financially trying to retain players. That's something I will be keen to sort out - the message is clear one club and a united front. Let's build on last year and aim to progress, the FA Cup is a decent target this year"

A club spokesman said "It's been hard for Scott personally, he was in charge of all football matters and losing in two different summers pretty much two Under 18s squads where their managers took them into lower league football didn't help along with trying to hold onto his main squad. Hopefully John can continue what Scott started, we have a new third team with the latest U18s in all three senior sides and we can fend off approaches for our players from other clubs."

New manager Toy will continue to work with Armstrong's assistant Ian Logan-Giles and takes charge for the first time against Bishops Lydeard on Saturday. The club welcomes him back and wish him well.