Chesterfield's National League rivals Notts County part company with manager Neal Ardley

The Meadow Lane club sit sixth in the league table, four points ahead of the Spireites.

County came from two goals down to earn a draw at Yeovil Town on Tuesday night but it was not enough to keep Ardley, who was appointed in November 2018, and his assistant, Greg Abbott, in a job.

Ardley led the Magpies to the National League play-off final last year where they lost to Harrogate Town.

In a statement, Notts said that ‘many factors far outweigh results’ which led them to make the decision.

They also said that they are not inviting applications for the manager’s position, giving the impression that they already have a replacement lined up.

"We will never forget the job he did in guiding us to last season’s play-off final at Wembley and some of the excellent performances he has extracted from the team during our time at the helm,” a club statement said.

"It has also been pleasing to see an upturn in recent results, including another spirited fightback last night, and we understand, therefore, that this announcement may come as a surprise to our supporters, who we know share our view that Neal is an excellent ambassador for the club.

"We do not, however, apply short-term thinking to decisions of this magnitude. We consider many factors which far outweigh our results in the last few matches and these deliberations have ultimately led us to conclude that we can be better, and that a change is needed to take us to the next level.”