Evening Press sports reporter Claire Hughes gets the lowdown on Tadcaster Albion's descent with club mainstay Wayne Day.

Trouble is brewing at Tadcaster Albion.

The chairman has resigned, the treasurer has resigned, the first team manager has resigned. All three posts will be officially vacant at the end of the season.

No-one has yet answered the call after more than two months of trying and despondency has spread to the pitch as a sense of hopelessness festers away like the beer fermenting in the factory that overshadows the club.

When Wayne Day announced in February he would be leaving at the end of the season, he never expected it to be like this.

He joined the club seven years ago as a coach and gradually took on more and more responsibility as others stepped down or shied away.

At the moment, he is the chairman, treasurer, first team manager, kit man, dressing-room cleaner, bar manager... in his own words: "I really am chief, cook and bottlewasher."

On the field, the team are bottom of the Northern Counties East League division one table going into tonight's game against Shirebrook Town and off it, the club is staring at a crisis.

"There's been talk of one or two people coming in but nothing much seems to have come of it yet," said Day. "The reason I gave three months' notice was so they could fill the positions.

"I said right at the start that if they found a new chairman in March, I would step down in March. If they found a treasurer in April, I would step down then, and if they wanted to put a new manager in for the last month so they had a chance to get a good look at the lads ready for next season, that would be fine.

"I even said if they wanted people in so I can tell them what I'm doing and what's required, I would do that, too.

"But nothing has come out of it yet."

After another home defeat last Saturday, he sighs: "We just never looked like we wanted it. I wish I had never said anything to the players about leaving - everybody's just given up.

"We are now in a slump and we are trying to focus and turn things around but what can we do?

"We are not running out of ideas as much as running out of options because we are having to change things week in week out.

"This week we made four changes from last Saturday and we are constantly finding ourselves kicking right from square one. Rather than starting with a team and then building on that during the season, we have got to constantly start again.

"There is no continuity in selection or coaching because we could be coaching one guy to play in a certain position and then he will have to change to somewhere else the next week."

The situation would be frustrating for any manager. But when you hardly have time to give the players your attention at training, leaving it to assistant Simon Targett and coach Rich Horsley because of other club responsibilities, it is even harder. And when you see yourself as a coach first and foremost... it's no wonder Day is beyond frustration.

"It's not frustrating any more, it's just disappointing," he said.

"Especially as the players we've got can do a lot better.

"I suppose it is a sort of back-handed compliment because we have got a young side. I'm like more of a father-figure to a lot of them because they have known nobody else at the club. When I started here I was coaching the youth team and helped a lot of them through into the reserve team and now the first team. I'm all they know.

"Now because I'm going, they are all worrying about what's going to happen next season.

"I've been trying to tell them all not to worry about it, let's finish the season on a high and take it from there. But it's as though they have all been disillusioned for the last two months."

On a wider scale of things, if the Brewers cannot shake off their worrying trend, they will be looking at re-election to the league - but five months ago they were pushing for promotion.

Day said: "We would have to pay £100 to seek re-election, although that shouldn't be a problem because of the league re-structuring.

"But we were six points off the top six in November. We sat down and went through the fixtures and felt that come the end of the month, we could realistically be sixth or thereabouts.

"It was the same again in December. We had a few games called off in January and then I announced I was leaving and we haven't won since.

"I sometimes wish I'd never told the players but I thought that if I gave enough notice, they would have plenty of time to get people in.

"At the end of the day I have put too much time and effort into the club to just walk away. But I know that I have done my best and it's up to them now."

Updated: 11:30 Tuesday, April 20, 2004