Hemel Hempstead Town part company with manager Bobby Wilkinson

Wilkinson took over in the summer and guided them to their best ever start in the National League South, winning eight of their first ten games and taking them top of the table.

But a catastrophic run of injuries hampered the team’s progress since and they’ve now dropped to 17th in the league, having not won since September 7 at Slough Town.

A club statement released on Friday read: “The club would like to put on record our thanks for the hard work that Bobby has put into the club over his time here, the strong start to the season created some great memories for our fans.

“The club acknowledges the impact that injuries have had on the squad and the challenges that this created.

“We wish Bobby and his management team all the best in their future careers.

“Following his departure, Bobby would like to put on his record his thanks to everyone at the football club, the Chairman, Committee and most importantly the fans who have supported him through these very challenging last six weeks.

“The Club remain committed to finishing the season strongly and are actively working on confirming a new management team.”

In an interview Wilkinson did with the Gazette on Wednesday and which was due to be published next week, he said the run of injuries he’d had to cope with had been unprecedented in his career.

He said: “It’s 98 per cent of the reason we’re on such a poor run.

“When we lost 7-1 to Dorking we had two players in the side that had featured in our last victory, a 1-0 win at Slough Town – who hadn’t lost at home in a year – back in September.

“We’ve not simply become a bad team overnight. The problem is not just the injuries happening in the first place. It’s the fact that the sheer number of them mean that when our best players initially look ready to return, we’re in danger of rushing them back too soon and that then aggravates the injuries further and we lose them again.

“But the alternative has been to play young players who have done really well but who, with the utmost respect to them, aren’t ready for National League South football yet, or at least not in the circumstances in which we’ve had to play them.

“In the first ten games I picked an unchanged side. I haven’t been able to do that at all since then.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it as a manager. You can’t just go out and sign new players to replace those injured because they have to be of the right calibre and even if you do, you can then end up with a surplus once a good number are fit again, let alone the financial implications.

“I’ve almost become a victim of my own success because the start we had was so good that it’s then been more noticeable that the form has nosedived. It was the club’s best ever start to a season.

“The target set for me at the start of this season when I came in was to get a good side that will compete every week and to finish higher than last season. We are certainly likely to do the latter, and when I have my first choice team available we’ve already shown that we will more than compete every week."