GEOFF Butler has parted company with Bashley after turning down a pay cut for next season.

The 58-year-old, only halfway through a two-year agreement with the Ryman Division 1 club, says new terms being offered barely cover travelling expenses from his home in Shrewton, Wiltshire - a round trip of 70 miles.

Butler confirmed: "The chairman Gary Parsons rang me yesterday and asked if I would accept the terms being offered and I said: 'You know I can't.'

"Not only was I doing 200 miles a week to get to Bashley, but I run my own home improvements business and on the lighter nights I can continue working into early evening, but I have to knock off at four or five in the afternoon to get to training by seven.

"Bashley were only offering me a third of what I was getting last season and it would probably have ended up costing me £200 a week to carry on."

The New Forest club's continuing struggle to make ends meet left Butler with a thankless task last term. Having built a team virtually from scratch, budget cuts forced him to offload two senior players, Graeme Gee and Mat Jones, and then loan top scorer Richard Gillespie to Salisbury

Despite being left with a team top-heavy with youngsters, the vastly experienced former Salisbury City and Weymouth manager steered the Foresters to 14th place in Ryman 1 - a comfortable 17 points clear of relegation.

Butler reflected: "It's been difficult, but I've really enjoyed my time at Bashley. They're nice people and I was looking forward to honouring my two-year agreement. But the dictating factor all the way along has been lack of money.

"Around Christmas-time I gave the players a challenge to get into the play-offs and I genuinely felt we had a chance with one or two additions, but money - or lack of it - meant that not only could we not get new players in, we had to let some go."

Parsons, who will himself stand down at this summer's AGM, admitted: "It's very sad. I get on well with Geoff, but we're still trying to put our house in order and we've got to be sensible. We cut the players' wages last year and achieved miracles, but we felt the next thing was to try and get the manager to take a wage cut. But fair do's to Geoff, he said 'no'."

Asked what Bash would do about the remaining year of Butler's deal, Parsons said: "According to Geoff he's on a two-year verbal agreement with the club, but there's no written contract at all."

Ricky Haysom is surplus to Bashley's requirements after two years serving as assistant manager to Butler and his predecessor John Robson.