Former Sittingbourne manager Reece Prestedge says he leaves with his head held high and is confident their form would have turned around

Reece Prestedge says he leaves Sittingbourne with his head held high after being sacked by the Isthmian South East club.

Prestedge was dismissed after almost a year in charge following the Brickies’ 2-0 home defeat by Steyning on Saturday, leaving them two points outside the play-offs in 10th place.

He accepts results hadn’t been good enough of late, with the Brickies winning two of his final 10 league games, having started the campaign with four wins and a draw before a lengthy injury list affected their form.

But the decision to make a change surprised the former Maidstone and Bromley midfielder, whose assistant manager Joe Anderson has taken caretaker charge alongside first-team coach Godfrey Poku.

Prestedge led Sittingbourne to fifth place and a play-off semi-final appearance after taking over last November with the team in 12th, and is confident results would have improved this season.

“It’s come out of the blue,” said Prestedge. “There wasn’t any conversation about it before, or anything like that.

“Mo (chairman Maurice Dunk) called and said the board wanted to make a change and were going to take a different approach.

“It was very much out of the blue but it’s a results game and results weren’t good enough at the time.

“There are reasons for that but I also know we would have turned it around.

“I still think that squad is easily good enough to do that.

“Once all the bodies were back, I’ve no doubt we’d have gone on a run, but I’m not there now.

“I think I can hold my head high. We had a really good start to the season before the injury list hit, and last year we got into the play-offs when no one expected us to, but we did it.

“I wish the club well. Good luck to everyone.

“I thank the players and the fans, who