Colchester United: Steve Ball to lead interim management team following Wayne Brown's sacking

Steve Ball is a former Colchester United player and manager

Colchester United technical director and former boss Steve Ball will lead an interim management team following the sacking of head coach Wayne Brown.

Ball will be assisted by head of recruitment Ross Embleton and under-18s coach Elliot Ward until the League Two U's appoint a new head coach.

Brown was sacked on Sunday after a run of five defeats in their opening nine games of the season.

Ball left as U's boss in February 2021 after 13 games without a win.

He re-joined the club as technical director this summer but has told the club he is not interested in taking permanent charge for a second time.

"Steve has ruled himself out of the process of taking the role past this period and will return to his role as technical director when a new first team head coach is appointed," U's sporting director Dmitri Halajko said.

Halajko added that the recruitment process to replace Brown "has already started" for a head coach who can "take the club forward".

"It's a very important appointment so we must be thorough. However, we will also be working extremely hard to make the right choice as smoothly and as quickly as possible," he added.

"We felt that the right thing to do was to put a completely different management team in charge for those games that are to be played whilst we conduct our search."

Halajko also said the fact that Brown's assistant Joe Dunne, under-23s coach David Hussey and goalkeeping coach Darren Smith had not been included in the new interim team "should not be seen as an indication that those staff members have departed the club and will not be involved again in the future".

Ball's first game back in charge will be at home to Rochdale on Saturday.

Dmitri Halajko was appointed as Colchester United's technical director in July 2022 leaving his role as manager of West Ham United's under-23 side