Meurig Price and John Strand have resigned from Merthyr Town’s board with immediate effect.
The Southern League club are facing a financial crisis and many of their players are leaving the club, although manager Gavin Williams has pledged to stick with the Martyrs.
A club statement today said: “Meurig and John have announced that they are resigning from the Merthyr Town FC board with immediate effect.
“They would both like to thank all of the staff and many volunteers for their support over the last few years.”
These are the latest resignations from the board, following Lee Rossiter, Anthony Hughes, Jamie Mack and Robert Parker. Jamie will remain in his role as football secretary.
An emergency meeting of club owners will be held at Romans at the Loadlok Community Stadium this evening (Monday, 7.30pm).
Midfield player Elliot Richards has confirmed he is leaving Merthyr Town.
Richards, who has previously played for Cheltenham Town and Bristol Rovers, has signed for Merthyr’s Southern League rivals Hereford FC.
Goalkeeper Oliver Davies has tweeted that he has left the Martyrs, while striker Stuart Fleetwood is in talks with other clubs in the same division.
Fleetwood said the players only knew about the financial problems on Thursday and made it clear he is angry, tweeting: “Walked out? Left? Money row? Is this banter or what…..? People need to know the real story! #HeadsGone.”
“We weren’t aware of it until Thursday,” said Fleetwood. “We were meant to go to training but was told there wasn’t any.
“It came out of the blue, but when you’re at this level and playing non-contract players, it can happen.
“It’s happened just before Christmas, so is a bit of bad timing and I feel sorry for the club because of what happened to them 10 years ago.”
Merthyr fielded a development side at Chesham United.
“I did offer to pay for free on Saturday because I wanted to make sure they could play this Saturday and that I could help them out,” said Fleetwood.
“But they didn’t want us to be left hanging on and said it would be best to find something else.”
A number of players, including Curtis McDonald and Kerry Morgan, tweeted best wishes to Merthyr’s young players on duty at Chesham.
Manager Gavin Williams and Ashley Thomas were the two substitutes for Merthyr.
Goalkeeper Ed Lewiston was named man of the match even though the Martyrs lost 13-1, making a series of outstanding saves, while Jacob Flower was their goalscorer.
Merthyr’s consolation came after 83 minutes when Chesham were caught on the break after a corner was cleared and Flower ran through to beat Hafed Al-Droubi and provoke wild celebrations among visiting supporters.
This was Chesham’s biggest win since 1923, but the home club’s report said: “Few people were celebrating afterwards given the position Merthyr find themselves in.
“After their playing budget was slashed Merthyr could only field a development team, who battled to the end.”
Merthyr Town starting line-up: Ed Hewitson, Dan Dima, Liam Martin, Elliott Evans, Dominic Mahoney, Sean Montgomery, Harrison Lewis, Marcus Hogbakken, Jacob Flower, Adam Vine, Ammar Nazrali.
