Nairn County have confirmed the departure of manager Ronnie Sharp and his assistant Michael Rae.
Sharp was in his second spell at Station Park having returned to the club in 2016 following an initial spell in charge from 1999 to 2004.
Striker Conor Gethins has been appointed as caretaker player-manager.
Sharp said: “It has been a proud period of my life to be manager of my hometown club for the last six years and I would like to thank the former chairman Donald Matheson and the management committee for giving me this opportunity.
“I would also like to thank all the players I have worked with for their efforts over the years, my assistant manager Michael Rae and all of the coaching staff who have worked alongside us at various points.
“Finally, I would like to thank the fans for all their support and wish everyone involved at the club all the best of luck for the future.”
Nairn chairman Mark Kelman thanked Sharp for his service to the club.
He said: “I have only worked with Ronnie a short time but I have found him to be a thoroughly decent man and he is clearly a talented coach given his past achievements with the club.
“I would like to thank Ronnie for everything he has done for the club over a long number of years and the amazing amount of time, effort and commitment he has given to the role.
“People on the outside maybe do not realise just how much dedication Ronnie has given to the position and the number of sacrifices he has made to help us to be successful.
“We all wish Ronnie the very best for the future and he will certainly be more than welcome back at Station Park any time he wishes.”
Nairn sit second bottom of the Breedon Highland League with three draws and four defeats from their opening seven games.
They were beaten 3-1 by Drumchapel United in the first round of the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
Nairn’s director of football Graeme Macleod said: “Ronnie can leave the club with his head held high for all he has achieved with us in his six years back at the helm.
“He built up the squad from nothing and managed to keep our heads above the water before strengthening and evolving that pool of players into a team capable of taking points off any team in the Highland League on their day, which his results over the last few seasons proves.
“It is sad to see Ronnie go and it has been a pleasure for me to work so closely with him over the last six years.
“The players are all focussed on the job in hand with important fixtures coming up over the next few weeks and we will be doing all we can to support Conor in guiding us forward in the short term while we go through the process of appointing a new manager.”
When Sharp returned to the Nairn hotseat in 2016, he inherited a squad which only had six signed first team players just four days before the opening day of the season.
He steered the team to a 13th place finish in the 18-team division before climbing to ninth the following campaign.
Nairn then finished seventh during the Covid-19 impacted 2019-20 season.
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