Roffey FC appoint former AFC Wimbledon man - but only as interim manager

The club announced the move on Thursday morning following social media talk that Lampard was being replaced. And we can reveal that former Crawley Town boss John Yems helped secure Eames' services.

He guided Roffey to the SCFL division one title last season and the club are now preparing for life in the premier division.

Roffey said: "Andy Lampard, the 1st team manager, has decided to take a short sabbatical to deal with private matters after successful taking the team into the premier division of the SCFL for the first time in the club's history.

"As Andy requested we have been able to secure the support of an interim manager, and welcome Terry Eames, former pro player and manager of Wimbledon AFC, and local Roffey resident. Terry will manage the team for this period until Andy's return."

Keith Murray, who works for the Ryan Canter Club and was commercial director at Crawley Town FC, along with former Crawley Town boss John Yems helped facilitate the Terry Eames appointment.

He said: "Phil Gibbs, who runs Roffey, has a fantastic project going on there. He is just a really nice guy spending his own money to do good for the football club and the community there.

"We helped him out last year, we gave him some minibuses and sponsorship to help him out. He was a big mate of a colleague of mine and I was introduced to him and I have known for a long time."

Murray said Gibbs rang him on Saturday afternoon to say he had a problem and could he chat it through with him. Murray said: "His manager had said he had mental health issues and wanted to take a break for a period of time.

"And Phil said 'I want to support him but what can I do? We have been promoted to Tier 5 football and we haven't got a manager. He said 'I need to do something to keep the place warm for Andy but I need to solve the problem."

Murray said that's when he contacted Yems to help out. He said: "I said I would have a word with John [Yems] as he knows everyone in local football. I am still looking after John with his mental health after what he has gone through. He's bored, he's frustrated, he can't do anything. He said we should have a chat with Phil."

Eames is a friend of Yems and he lives round the corner and the former Reds boss said he would have a word to see if they could do something. Murray said: "John set up a load of community programmes when he was in charge of Horsham and he told Phil he would help Phil with all of those to get everything in place for the project with Roffey.

"We went down on Tuesday, he introduced Terry, it was all based on doing something to protect the manager. John felt for the manager as he has mental health issues and he knows what it is like.

"We just want to give them support, and if Dannie Bulman, who works for me now after leaving Crawley Town, can go along and give some support with training sessions, that's what we will do. All myself and John Yems are trying to do is help someone who is trying to do good for the football community and that's all we have done."

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