YORK City Supporters’ Trust chairman and City board member Mike Brown is “confident” that the sacking of John Askey was in the club’s best interest in the long term.

Askey took charge of York in November last year, initially on an interim basis, before being appointed the permanent manager in March.

He earned promotion to the Vanarama National League with City and took them to the semi-finals of last season’s Isuzu FA Trophy.

The 58-year-old guided the Minstermen to 12th place after 19 games this term and signed a new contract until the end of next season in September.

The dismissal of Askey, who turned down a move to Sky Bet League Two side Rochdale earlier this year, has been met with uproar from the City faithful on social media.

Speaking to BBC Radio York, when asked if Askey’s sacking was in the best interest of the club, Brown said: “In the long term, I’m confident that’s the case.

“Simply because, when any business gets into a situation where an employee is saying that they’re unhappy and there’s an offer to find solutions and they feel there isn’t a solution there and that message comes loud and clear on a number of occasions, then you’re left in a position where it’s not in anybody’s interest to carry on in that scenario. 

“It was only going to get worse over time, for everybody. It was a heartbreaking decision to make and I feel awful about it as a supporter. 

“I’ve spoken to so many people and said to them all, I understand that, as a supporter, if I wasn’t involved and hadn’t seen what had gone on, I’d be reacting in exactly the same way. I totally get it.”

Brown is one of two Trust representatives on the City board, alongside chief executive Alastair Smith.

After Glen Henderson’s purchase of the club in July, he took 51 per cent of shareholdings and the Trust took the remaining 49 per cent.

“If we go right back to the start, the day we took over, the 6th of July, our top priority was to meet with John (Askey) and Kingsley (James, first-team coach), which we did,” reflected Brown.

“We had a generally positive meeting. That meeting started by me thanking both of them for everything that they’d achieved, the miracle that they’d achieved last season. 

“Nobody expected it (promotion) and it was a footballing miracle. We were very excited, Glen more than anybody, to start working with John to build for the future. 

“There was no prejudgement about that at all. For weeks before the takeover, as we knew we were getting there, Glen was itching to talk to John. 

“The day after, there was an interview with John and he was asked what he thought of the new owners and his answer was not much, so it didn’t get off to a particularly good start.

“I think a lot of people point to (the Radio York) interview with Glen on November 1. To my mind, what that was, was matters coming to a head that had been rumbling on for some time.”

York have stated in releases that they hope to appoint a permanent successor to Askey by the end of November.

“We’ve had quite a decent volume of CV’s come in already,” noted Brown.

“In fact, I have been involved myself in appointing a manager, that didn’t go too well back in 2003. 

“In fact, at the time, I was a lone voice in the boardroom saying that we shouldn’t offer a three-year contract at that point, but I was outvoted on it. 

“We’ll be looking at CV’s, historic performance, attitude and naturally, we will whittle it down to a number of maybe three, four, five that fit the bill in terms of experience and performance and success. 

“From a CV, of course, everybody writes all the positive things that any board wants to hear. Then we get them in, we take references, we talk to people in the game.

“(We’ve) probably (gotten) more than a bit of flak and hand on heart, I can say having spent weeks, in fact months, I joined the board a bit later than Glen and Alastair, but I’ve been kept abreast of a lot of the things going on. 

“This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life, probably the hardest. It was heart wrenching. 

“But as Glen said in his interview (with Radio York), we have to do what we believe is best for the club, not just in the short term. Of course, we understand people’s reaction."