PAUL Ogden has urged Witton Albion to appoint a new manager as soon as possible.

If they don’t, he warns, then the club risks it taking longer to recover fully from being relegated last season.

“This is a period of failure, let’s not hide from that,” he said.

“And a guy who is nearly 70 isn’t going to bring you out of that.

“I was asked to get the show back on the road, and I think I have.

“But it was only ever a temporary arrangement.

“The club needs a person in charge who can firstly bring stability. That’s so important.

“After that I’m certain Witton can be successful again, and can return to the status they had before.”

And Albion, beaten 7-0 at Farsley Celtic on Tuesday night, appear to have listened.

Chairman Mark Harris told the Guardian the board will interview candidates to replace Scott Dundas, sacked as manager last month, before the weekend.

“Paul Ogden has done a great job,” he said.

“He’s obviously in an unhappy place after what happened [at Farsley], but he’s helped us out when we needed him.

“What that result has emphasised is we need to make a decision.

“We’ll be talking to people in the next day or two.”

A new man is unlikely to be in charge for Saturday’s home game against Spennymoor, or for Tuesday’s trip to Mossley.

Albion go into that double-header five points adrift of a play-offs place in the Northern Premier League’s Division One North despite losing half of their matches to date this season.

They were demoted from the Premier Division on the final day of last term.

Ogden said: “I’ve said it previously – there’s talent in that dressing room, but there’s also work to do.

“I can’t believe that from one day to another a team can win 5-0, then lose seven.

“It was the worst 90 minutes I’ve ever experienced as a manager, and I offer the supporters a massive apology for that.

“We’ve made some progress over the past four games, but that’s not enough time to correct everything that’s wrong.

“The reason I took on a caretaker role is because the situation really was serious.

“For a couple of days, we had no idea what sort of side we would be putting out for the FA Trophy tie [against Ossett Albion].

“We got through that period, but it was tricky.”