West Bromwich Albion have sacked Darren Moore, blaming the head coach for failing to “engineer consistency of form and results”.
The decision to sack Moore and his assistants, Graeme Jones and Wayne Jacobs, came hours after the Baggies’ 1-1 draw against bottom club Ipswich, which further dented their automatic promotion hopes.
Albion have won just four of their last 12 Championship games, but are still fourth in the table, on track for a place in the play-offs.
Chief executive Mark Jenkins told the club’s website: “This has been an enormously difficult decision for a club which will always hold Darren in such high regard. He took over at a very difficult time last season and reunited the club, a contribution that will never be forgotten.
“But we have made it clear from the outset that everything this season was geared to making as swift a return to the Premier League as possible. Unfortunately Darren has not been able to engineer the consistency of form and results to convince the board that this objective would be met.
“After discussions with our owners, the difficult decision to make a change was taken.”
Albion said first-team coach James Shan would take charge on an interim basis, but the club “hope to be able to name a new head coach as soon as possible”.