Witham Town Football Club's hunt for a new manager has formally started with the club inviting applications to take the hotseat at Spa Road.

The move to appoint a new boss has come in the wake of the announcement last week that manager Mark Ashford had decided to leave the post.

Ashford guided Witham to Bostik League division north safety last season, but opted to depart after being told that there would not be a significant increase in the playing budget for next year.

The club were unable to raise the funding available to the manager and Ashford felt he could not take the team forward in the way he wanted, so said he would be leaving after a year in charge.

It means Witham are heading into their second successive summer managerial hunt.

Chairman Mark Nicholls has said applications for the post will be welcomed and added that they were looking for a new boss who was prepared to work within the ongoing ethos of the community-based club.

While he confirmed that it would be a tight financial budget that the new manager would have to work with again, Nicholls said Witham were keen to bring in someone who, like Ashford and previous manager Adam Flint, had been prepared to develop promising young players and move them through from the club's youth and reserve systems into the first-team ranks.

The chairman said: "We are looking for someone to work at a good community club at step four in the Bostik League within a strict budget and someone who is keen to look at developing and working with our youth set-up."

Any applications for the position as new Witham Town manager can be sent to Nicholls by email at mark.nicholls_1@btinternet.com