JUST last week, Dave Webb met up with Dave Turner to discuss local football and the Swindon Supermarine manager, like the rest of the non-league community, was shocked by the former Shrivenham boss’s untimely passing.

Webb was in regular contact with Turner to chat about players, form and upcoming fixtures, and the ex-Wootton Bassett chief’s death at the age of 52, as a result of a heart attack, has stunned him as much as many others in local footballing circles.

The Marine boss paid tribute to Turner’s work at Bassett, Shrivvy and Pewsey Vale and sent out his own message of support to his friend’s wife, Trisha, and two sons, Alex and James.

“It’s just so sad. I saw Dave last week and we spoke over the phone last week. We have regular conversations and it’s very, very sad. I just feel for his wife and his two boys and his close friends, people who know him really well,” he said.

“In all the dealings I’ve had with Dave he’s been a pleasure to deal with. He’s a great gentleman, a lovely man, he believed in doing things properly. He had his way of doing things and always believed he did things the right way.

“It’s just knocked me sideways. You don’t expect to hear that from someone who always kept himself ticking over on the bike or in the gym.

“Like all of us he liked the finer things in life but he looked after himself as well so it’s come as a massive shock to me.

“He’s slightly older than me but not that many years more - and you don’t expect to hear something so sad for someone so young.”

Webb does not have a bad word to say about Turner, stressing that he made an impact on anyone and everyone he met in the region.

“The majority of people Dave touched - in life or through sport - would say he was a real nice guy and he’ll be very sadly missed,” he said. “Everyone associated with my current club, Swindon Supermarine, has their thoughts with the people closest to him. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

“We’d have conversations - managers do talk - and Dave has always believed in his principles and always tried to do things professionally, whichever club he was at. Certainly he put together a good team at Bassett, Pewsey before that and he’s started something at Shrivenham.

“He’d obviously been doing a good job and players were wanting to go there and play for him, and “I think that says it all when a player wants to play for you. That means they respect you.

“That’s the thing that will remind me of Dave - the players who played with him always stayed loyal to him.

“It’s terrible news, you just don’t expect to hear it.

“I think the whole community will show their respects to Dave.”