Sligo Rovers hope to have a new manager in place before the end of the season after the club confirmed that current boss John Coleman has returned to Accrington Stanley just three months after arriving at the Showgrounds.

Coleman previously spent 13 years at Accrington during which time he guided the club back into the English league after an absence of nearly half a century. He was approached about returning at the weekend following the departure of James Beattie with the team lying 20th in League Two and the two clubs have since agreed a compensation package.

"He was very honourable about it all," says Rovers chairman Dermot Kelly, "but he wanted to go and there would have been no point in keeping a manager here who didn't want to be here.

“We’re grateful to him for the job he did for us after coming in at short notice, he got us through a round in Europe which was important and we came close to getting through against Rosenborg but this is a good opportunity for him and Jimmy (Bell, his assistant), the club have been good to deal with in relation to it all and we wish them all the best.”

Youth team coach Gavin Dykes takes charge of the team for the coming weeks, starting with Saturday's league game against Drogheda United, but the former Rovers, Finn Harps and Derry City player has apparently indicated that he does not want to be considered for the post on a permanent basis.

Kelly says that they have already received expressions of interest in the job from both here and England but he says that given the first team’s current position in the league and the fact that they are out of the cup, they will be not be rushing into anything.

“We’d hope to have a manager in by the end of the season or at least to have identified one by then, but for the first time in a while we have the time to have a good look around and choose somebody who really suits us so we’ll take our time and try to make sure we get the right man for the job.”