Grant Joshua decides to walk away from Lye Town

The Flyers boss joined the club in February 2020, and has since led his side to step four football and the Northern One Midlands – gaining promotion via the Midland League Premier Division play-offs last season.

Lye have relished playing at the highest level in their history, and are hoping to maintain their seventh-placed position in the table when the season ends this weekend.

The Flyers welcome Cambridge City before Joshua will walk away, and the manager is extremely proud of everything they’ve achieved.

“It will be difficult and tough to get through on Saturday,” said Joshua. “It should be a celebration of where the club has been, where it is now, and where we are leaving it.

“Hopefully we will be finishing in seventh place and a few points outside the play-offs.

“We have got to a certain point as a club, maybe financially, where it would be difficult to replicate what we’ve done this season.

“It’s the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I’ve taken my personal feelings out of it and looked at the journey we’ve been on, and what I envisaged for next season. I’m looking for a fresh challenge and to have that excitement going into new surroundings.

“It’s been an unbelievable four years.

“The rise of the club has been remarkable. For me leaving as the club’s most successful manager and getting them to a level they’ve never been at, it feels the right time.”

Joshua doesn’t currently have a job to go to, or lined up. However, given his success with the Flyers it’s likely he will be back in management soon, and Stourbridge will be searching for a permanent replacement for Leon Broadhurst following his sacking in late-March.

The 37-year-old is hoping for something to land at his feet soon saying: “There’s nothing lined up, and that was probably the biggest risk that I had to come to terms with.

“I’m hoping and praying that something comes that excites me. I couldn’t go into a pre-season at 60 or 70 per cent. I’ve got too much respect for the football club to go in that way, and for the chairman to go and do a half-hearted job.

“I’m doing what is best for the club in getting it out there now and not going into a season where I don’t think we could build a team capable of matching my ambitions.

“I’m not prepared to go and make the numbers up. I want to be competing at the top-end of the league.

“Everything has gone up a level to match where they are, but Lye Town really is punching way above its weight and probably shouldn’t be at step four.

“It’s been an unbelievable journey for myself, and I couldn’t have even thought that it would end this way. The biggest thing for me and important thing for me when I took over in 2020 was that I wanted to leave the club in a better place than I found it.”