Adam was always planning to step down at the end of this season following him moving to Cambridgeshire in April, having a young daughter and wanting to focus on his role as chairman of the club.

Here is what he has had to say:

This season has been the toughest i have faced in 5 years of managing at this level with player commitment and demands of the role harder than ever before. The results on the pitch have been far from good enough and i take FULL responsibility for this and although i planned to step down at the end of the season i feel the club needs a new approach on the pitch to help us push on next season. We have suffered this year mainly due to having 17 seven day approaches from clubs higher or with a budget so we have had to rebuild and rebuild, when you lose that amount of players that you don't want to lose it is always difficult. We need new energy, drive and passion on the pitch as i have felt for a few months i haven't been able to give that due to my role as chairman and really trying to grow off the pitch. I also have a young daughter that don't see as much of me as she or i would like and as people know managing a team requires a lot of time, effort and commitment. So i feel 100% the time is right to step away.

I am putting this out there now to hopefully be able to attract interest from top candidates before the end of the season so that by end of April ideally I would have someone in place to start preparing for the new season. We are looking internally as well but we want to see what options are available to us to help the club move in the direction myself and the committee want it to.

I have to add i have had great support from Cris, Charlie, Dan and Pete this season and this guys are great people and have been fantastic for the football club whilst always supporting me. I would like to thank the players and management for there support this season and I am hoping we can go out on a positive these next 5 games.

Vacancy.

So we are looking for a first team manager who can take the team forward and bring fresh players/ideas etc to the team. If you are interested in a confidential conversation or are interested in the role please email ilfordfc.chairman@hotmail.com with your full name, background details, what you can bring and what player pool if any you have? Please note only candidates who will be taken through to interview stage will be contacted.

We aim for this position to start on 1st of May if we find the right candidate.

This is a great football club with great history and we are really improving things off the pitch that will help us on it.

I look forward to the last 5 games with the lads and hopefully end on a positive.

Best Wishes

Adam Peek
Chairman