Wantage Town’s new boss Daniel Barry says he is optimistic most of the players will stay at the Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 South & West club as he faces the challenge of keeping them up.

Barry, 29, was promoted from reserve team manager on Monday following the sudden departure of chairman Tony Woodward and boss Gary Ackling.

Woodward reiterated that he would not be expanding on his earlier statement that he was leaving for personal reasons.

And Barry, who faces his managerial baptism at Yate Town tomorrow, said everyone was stunned by the double departures.

“It was a big shock to everyone and I think the club are still feeling the affects,” said Barry.

“Tony was ‘Mr Wantage’ and what he did for the club was incredible.

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“He put a lot of finance in and the club put in a bit, so we can’t sustain the budget.”

One of the first affects of the reduced budget has seen the departure of three on-loan defenders.

Xapi Arnau and Ben Brown have returned to Oxford City, while Jack Smith is now back at Eastleigh.

But Barry is hopeful there will not be a mass exodus of players.

“I have spoken to the players and they have all agreed to play for the club this weekend, which is really good news.

“It was a very positive meeting.

“When there are changes at clubs, you always get one or two leaving, but I hope most will stay.”

Despite the difficulties at Alfredian Park, Barry said he had no hesistation about taking over as boss.

He added: “When Gary left on Saturday I was asked if I would be interested in taking over.

“Wantage are a good club and I would have been silly not to.

“When I gave up playing due to a knee injury, I tried refereeing and then got into coaching. I hadn’t really thought about being a manager.

“My brief now is to keep Wantage out of the bottom three.

“It’s going to be a tough couple of months before things settle down.”

Barry will give Jared Jones his debut after shining in the reserves. Jimmy Deabill is suspended, while Karl Roberts is unavailable.

Wantage Tn (v Yate Tn, away): from Tucker, Farrow, Sadler, Cattell, Steedman, Johns, Reid, J Jones, Melledew, Riccio, Barder, Lachacz, Shaw, A Lovegrove.

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