Salford City SACK Richie Wellens after 'showdown talks' with Gary Neville

Salford City have sacked manager Richie Wellens after last weekend's defeat at Cheltenham left them six points off the League Two play-off spots.

According to The Sun, Wellens held 'showdown talks' with Salford co-owner and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville before he was later relieved of his duties.

It comes just nine days after Wellens led Salford to their EFL Trophy win against Portsmouth on penalties at Wembley - the first senior trophy in the club's history - but their league form has not been good enough.

The Class of '92 ownership have long been unhappy with what they saw on the pitch and co-owner Neville had held talks over their league form.

The former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit sat the players and staff down before the EFL Trophy win over Portsmouth - the final for last season's competition after it was delayed by Covid-19 - to discuss their issues.

But Neville then watched on as Salford lost more ground in the League Two promotion race at Cheltenham by going down 2-0 thanks to goals by Sean Long and Liam Sercombe.

A fiercely ambitious club, Salford are desperate to continue their climb up the domestic football pyramid and this is their second season in League Two.

They want to move out of the fourth-tier of English football and hope a new appointment can galvanise the squad going into the final 11 games of the campaign.

A club statement read: 'Salford City Football Club has parted company with Richie Wellens by mutual consent.

'We would like to thank Richie for his time and efforts at the Club and wish him well for the future.

'An announcement about a new manager will be made in due course.'

Wellens, who was in charge at Salford for just 138 days, was furious with his team's attitude after the defeat at The Jonny-Rocks Stadium on Saturday, particularly during the warm-up.

'The attitude was poor from the start,' he said after the 2-0 loss. 'If we stay humble, do the basics right, listen, and take out onto the pitch what we've worked on then we're alright, we'll pick up results in this league.

'But when players decide to drift off and do whatever they want to do then that's what we got served up.

'I've never watched our warm-up but I watched it today because our changing rooms, obviously they've moved them, so you can see the warm-up. Our warm-up I'm not happy with at all.

'I said to [coach] Warren Joyce when they came in if the game was won on the warm-up, we're already beat, it was a shambles so I'll be looking into that. The game started off pretty much as what I'd seen in the warm-up.'

Salford are now looking for a third manager this season after also parting company with Graham Alexander in October.

Salford next face fellow promotion-hopefuls Exeter City on Saturday at St James Park.