Town have confirmed the appointment of former defender John McGreal as interim manager following Paul Cook’s sacking on Saturday, and that the former boss’s coaching team, Gary Roberts, Franny Jeffers, Ian Craney and John Keeley, have also left the club.

McGreal, who rejoined the club last week as an U23s coach, will be assisted by Rene Gilmartin, his deputy during his short spell as manager at Swindon in the summer, U23s manager Kieron Dyer and head of academy goalkeeping Carl Pentney.

The club say the 49-year-old “will be in charge of Town for Tuesday night’s trip to Charlton”, suggesting his tenure may not be too long.

All McGreal's games as manager were at Colchester, one game as caretaker in 2015 and a spell between 2016 and 2020 during which time the U's were in League Two. In his 204 matches in charge, he saw the North Essex side to 76 wins, 55 draws and 73 defeats.

He saw the U's to eighth, 13th, eighth and sixth in his seasons in charge with the latter campaign ending in play-off semi-final defeat.

Dubliner Gilmartin is a former keeper, who played for Walsall, Plymouth and Colchester, during McGreal's time in charge of the U's, among a number of others.

The 34-year-old will be well-known to CEO Mark Ashton having been a back-up keeper at Bristol City for two years until the summer. He has also worked as the Republic of Ireland U21s coach since 2019.

Departing first-team coach Roberts, a Town winger under Jim Magilton, was appointed to his role by Cook in March, hanging up his boots as he did so having been in his third spell at Accrington Stanley.

Jeffers joined as another first-team coach in the summer from Everton, where he had been coaching their U23s, while Craney was recruited as a coach at the same time having previously worked with Cook at Wigan as kitman, although the Blues manager subsequently said that while that was his job title with the Latics that wasn’t his job, that was the only way to get him on to his staff.

Keeley also moved to the Blues in the summer having previously worked with Cook at Portsmouth.

Photo: Action Images

blues1 added 16:00 - Dec 6 Xantherick. "John who"? Say ur a town fan but don't know who he is? Sums up some of our fans. And the fact that if he did get the job, ud do away with ur season ticket, shows the kind of fan u are. What does it matter who the manager is, if he gets us the success we all crave.can ònly guess ur some1 who thinks it has to be a big name manager. Something we've tried before, and look where that's got us

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JJ1970 added 16:41 - Dec 6 The dust is settling after PC's dismissal and the search for his successor, has begun. The list of potential candidates is not too shabby imo. What I don't understand, on other forums, there's still fans saying, cook should've had more time, we needed a little patience 😂. Patience in the past has not held us in good stead has it 🙄.. Right decision, right time, or the season would've probably just petered out to another nothing. John Mcgreal is a good candidate, even if it is only temporary, maybe permanent? Who knows? As already pointed out, KD needs a liver transplant. This is not chicken pox that just goes after a couple of weeks. I, like many, would love to see KD lead the 1st teamers out of the tunnel one day. Let's wait till he gets better, before any more talk of this and get behind JM and the team for now and hope for a really good festive period to start 2022 with.

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jas0999 added 18:17 - Dec 6 Sensible decision. Sounds like a new manager will be appointed soon.
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62WasBest added 18:50 - Dec 6 Europablue - I think they are all local derbies, depending on where you live. All are league teams in East Anglia. I acknowledge some are more important than others to many/most fans but it isn't just history that makes a game a derby but proximity and local "bragging" rights. Whatever your view, I think it is over-critical to highlight something a manager said about local derbies, especially with all the other problems Town are having at present. One of my biggest gripes of several regimes overseeing Ipswich in recent years is their blindness towards fans that don't live near Ipswich but are Suffolk folk nevertheless. I'm not picking on you as others have said similar on this forum in the past week or so. So, maybe not a derby to you, but don't be so dismissive for others. I recall when even playing West Ham was considered something of a derby game when were in the top flight, and I am sure it felt that way for some fans living in Essex

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KiwiTractor added 19:03 - Dec 6 Good luck John. Just because he's an ex-player, doesn't mean he will be successful. He doesn't have a great record as a manager, so hopefully it is only interim - although I'd be quite comfortable him being an assistant for whoever get the job...
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Billericay12 added 07:28 - Dec 7 Marc Bircham, allegedly one of the favourites!!! Has managed 30 games in total. One for QPR and 29 for Waterford. None of the names mentioned so far excite me much but Neil Warnock could be worth a short term punt to try and get us up this season. Has a good record of promotions and play off success.
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