Sutton United manager Paul Doswell says the reason behind Alan Payne's departure from Gander Green Lane that they were working from "slightly different pages".

Payne was sacked last week as first team coach in the aftermath of United's FA Cup defeat to Bromley.

Fans poured on to the club's forum to express their dismay at the loss of the popular man, and Doswell is at pains to insist it was purely a footballing issue.

He said: "I regard Alan as a very good friend in football, the decision was made my myself with a heavy heart but I felt we weren’t quite on the same page about certain things. 

"He did a fantastic job with me over a period of time, but with all things in football, changes are made and it will happen to me at some point - it happened to me at Eastleigh."

He added: "I felt from my point of view that we were doing different things this year with the full-time training down in Guildford and trying to play a slightly different way as well.

"It was purely down to being on a slightly different page and nothing more than that. There was no great drama about it, it was just a decision made by me."