A former player is set to return to Oxhey Jets in their hour of need after the club’s manager left his post this week.

Stuart Atkins resigned in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s dramatic 6-4 defeat to Arlesey Town in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, claiming on social media that his position had “become untenable”.

Jets general manager John Elliott thanked Atkins and his staff for their efforts with the club but said: “There are many long-term friendships involved amongst staff and players and we will not be making any further comment on the situation.”

Elliott is now seeking a successor to Atkins but the timing is far from ideal with the daunting prospect of an FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie at home to Kingstonian to play on Saturday.

However, the general manager told the Watford Observer he has accepted an offer from former player and qualified coach Andrew Lomas to help out for the game against the Isthmian League Premier Division leaders.

Club captain Colin Jenkins is also set to be involved in the interim coaching set-up for the tie, with Elliott praising the “superb support” he has received from within Jets since Atkins’ departure.

Tuesday night’s game got off to the worst possible start for the hosts, who found themselves a goal down in just two minutes when a thumping shot from fully 40 yards hit the underside of the bar leaving goalkeeper Rob Partington with no hope, but he would have been disappointed with the static defending that allowed the simple tap-in from the rebound.

Jets rallied with some impressive football, equalising through John Smith after 12 minutes and three minutes later they took the lead through an Andy Brennan shot.

More poor defending allowed Arlesey to equalise on 28 minutes when a free-kick was not dealt with and again there was no challenge to the follow-up.

Jets regained the lead five minutes before the break though, when an excellent save denied a long-range effort from Louis Stead, but Lewis Putman was on hand to follow up with a rare header to make it 3-2 at the break.

A floodlight failure on one side of the ground early in the second half delayed proceedings but following the restart Jets extended their lead when Tom Gibson headed home from a corner.

Jets were firmly in control but that was to change very quickly as they were torn apart in a disastrous 16-minute spell, conceding four goals to crash to defeat and leave the side with five points out of a possible 12 at the start of the season.

Both sides also finished the game with 10 men, with Brennan seeing a straight red card in the closing stages as the game finished following a second floodlight failure.