DAVE Burgess has hit back at the doubters who say his decision to step down as Clitheroe manager was more to do with the club's shaky start to the season than work commitments.

The 39-year-old rocked the club last Wednesday by quitting 18 months after taking the post.

Work pressures forced his hand but he reckons the shock aspect of the decision is what has made people doubt his reasons.

"It has shocked people because I didn't speak to anybody about it before I told the club last Wednesday," he said.

"They tried to talk me out of it and have asked me to stay involved but I need to take a break first."

Burgess's former assistant Lee Sculpher has taken the reigns as player-boss and takes his side to Prescot Cables tonight.

"Scully will make a good manager. He's a good leader and he was a good assistant.

"He tried to talk me out of it and said he would take on more responsibilty but if I couldn't do it the way I had been doing it I didn't want to do it at all."

Burgess, who was the manager of the reserves before he took charge of the first team, took the Blues to the FA Vase semi-final and to second in the North West Counties League First Division last season.

"People say I could have stepped back and missed training but still be the manager but in my eyes managing a club is doing it the way I have been doing it.

"I have known I was going to do it, deep down, since the third game of the season. When we had the team photo taken for the programme I didn't go on it.

"People have said I got pushed but there couldn't be anything further from the truth.

"They have said I have gone because we were getting beat and I did take those defeats personally because I was the manager.

"I did get to thinking 'is it because I'm not thinking straight or is it because I had other things going on in my head?'.

"My boss has been off work for the last 10 weeks so I have been doing two jobs. My workload has increased ten-fold," said the sales manager, who works for Flexible Reinforcements in Clitheroe and has lived in the town for most of his life.

"He is leaving in December, I am taking his job and I won't be replaced so it is not going to get much better.

"Something had to give. Unfortunately football doesn't pay my mortgage."