Thorniewood United manager Gerry Bonham quits after heavy 7-1 Scottish Junior Cup defeat

Bonham has endured a nightmare second season in charge at the Viewpark outfit, with Thorniewood bottom of the McBookie.com Central Division 1 table having garnered only a single point from eight league fixtures this season.

“There has been a run of bad results,” said Thorniewood secretary Ian McLaughlin.

“Gerry and his assistant Stuart Easton decided that they needed to step back and see if someone else could turn it around.

“It has just not clicked at all this year.

“We only have one league point and now we’ve been convincingly knocked out of the cup by a team from our own division (report below).

“It was a very sore result for us.”

Thorniewood’s poor form this season – exacerbated by long term injuries to key men Graeme Watson, Ryan Smith and Darren Ferguson – is in sharp contrast to the fine run they produced under Bonham in the last campaign.

After taking over at Robertson Park as Andy Frame’s replacement last February, the former Lesmahagow Juniors player inspired a sensational spurt of just two defeats in their last 13 league games which saw ’Wood rise from the relegation zone to a fourth place finish.

Hopes had been high of a promotion push this season, but now simply avoiding relegation will be the short term remit for Bonham’s replacement.

At time of going to press, Thorniewood had already received seven applications for the vacant manager’s position.

“We will do interviews at the beginning of next week,” Ian added.

“We hope to have the new manager in place for our home game against Benburb a week on Saturday.

“He will have to bring some players in to bolster numbers, cover injuries and then assess what he’s doing going forward.”

Thorniewood host St Roch’s in the league this Saturday, kick-off 1.45pm.