YORK City captain Russell Penn has revealed that departed manager Nigel Worthington retained the full support of his players prior to resigning.

The City skipper admitted feeling “gutted” by the former Norwich and Northern Ireland chief’s exit and added he even feared Worthington might be head-hunted by a bigger club earlier in the season.

Penn was sent off in Worthington’s last game in charge - Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Newport - and was informed of Worthington’s decision, along with the rest of the squad, at the club’s Wigginton Road training ground yesterday.

The 28-year-old midfielder, who played a key role in last term’s Sky Bet League Two play-off push, said: “There’s not a chance anybody could say he had lost the dressing room. It was one of the strongest dressing rooms I’ve ever been in - both this season and last.

“His man-management skills were second-to-none but maybe he thought - and I’m only guessing until I get the chance to speak to him - he had taken the squad as far as he could because he is a proud man who wouldn’t have let go easily. He probably thought ‘I can’t get through to these players, enough’s enough’ and that he was banging his head against a wall.

“That long drive home to Norfolk that he used to do a couple of times a week must also seem a little bit longer when results aren’t going well.”

Penn believes Worthington’s situation demonstrates how quickly a manager’s fortunes can change with City having slipped to third bottom in the Football League at the weekend just five months after narrowly missing out on a Wembley play-off final, following a 1-0 two-legged aggregate defeat to Fleetwood.

“It’s the first time I’ve been at a club where the manager has resigned or been sacked so it’s all new to me and I was a bit shocked and gutted,” he confessed.

“I’ve only been here for a short time but the manager brought me to the club and was one of the reasons I came here in the first place.

“You can’t really believe football and how quickly it can go the other way. We were all worried Huddersfield might want him a few weeks ago, so I was surprised by the decision but I can understand it as well. As players, we’ve just got to get on with it now.”

Penn also reckons Worthington would have got the club back on track had he persevered at Bootham Crescent, saying: “I can only guess now, but I think we would have turned things around under the gaffer.

“We have started the first 12 games slower than expected and nobody wants that. We’ve been a bit unlucky at times, but there has been some bad decision making and some sloppy goals conceded and you can’t keep saying that all the time.”

York Press:

While holding himself completely culpable for Saturday’s loss - the team were leading 1-0 prior to his 46th-minute dismissal - Penn does not feel Worthington’s decision to leave was based solely on events in Newport.

“I take full responsibility for Saturday’s defeat,” he insisted. “I said that after the game and at training yesterday but I don’t think the gaffer has left because I got sent off and we lost a game at Newport.

“That would be papering over the cracks. It’s probably something he’s been thinking about for a month or so.”

Penn had not started a league game for two months at previous club Cheltenham before Worthington signed him for City in January.

It proved a move that helped revive Penn and the team’s fortunes.

Said the former England ‘C’ international added: “I want to thank him for the opportunity.

“He looked after me because I moved away from my family to come to York and that was a big decision that was made easier by him and the chairman.”