JOHN Cornforth's turbulent reign as Newport County manager finally came to an end last night - after just seven games of the new season.

A run of five consecutive defeats has left County third from bottom of Nationwide South and, under severe pressure from supporters, the directors took the decision to dismiss Cornforth, exactly a year to the day after Peter Nicholas was sacked in 2004.

"The decision to relieve John of his position has been made collectively as a board," said County spokesman Colin Everett.

"It was a very difficult decision to take because we have found John an honest and affable person and enjoyed a very good relationship with him.

"We still feel John has a lot of potential as a coach and manager but unfortunately the circumstances we find ourselves in will not allow him to realise his potential at County.

"The results have not been good and it was obvious that the pressure on the manager and the board from supporters was severe and we have a crucial FA Cup match coming up."

He added: "That is not to say that we bowed to supporters' pressure but we do listen to fans and we are a community club who cannot afford to have large sections of the support disillusioned and not coming to the matches this early in the season."

The sacking comes after Cornforth (who declined to comment at this stage) won just 10 of his 37 league matches in charge, losing 17 and drawing 10.

His side went out of the FA Cup fourth qualifying round at Tiverton, the FAW Premier Cup second round at Caernarfon and the FA Trophy first round at home to Kettering last season.

A decision about who will take charge of the side in the interim will be made later today when the process of finding a new manager will also begin.

*County have been handed a difficult trip to Chippenham in the FA Cup second qualifying round.

The match takes place a week on Saturday and County will hope to have a new manager installed by then after John Cornforth was sacked last night.

The Argus understands that Academy boss Glyn Jones is in the frame to take over as manager, with Jason Bowen alongside him as player-coach although several County board members would be keen in trying to entice former manager Tim Harris back from Merthyr Tydfil.

It is not known if the position will be advertised.