AXED Wimborne Town boss Simon Browne has hit back at claims he had a “negative” attitude, accusing the board of manufacturing a way to sack him.

Browne, dismissed alongside assistant Brendon King on Tuesday, revealed he had been offered £900 per week to cover player and staff costs at Cuthbury next season, writes Andy Mitchell.

Chairperson Paula Henley felt the management duo, who had guided Magpies to a solid Southern One South & West finish last season after the bulk of their budget had been scrapped, had not displayed enough enthusiasm over the club’s prospects.

She claimed: “With the level of budget we have to offer, Simon intimated that he wouldn’t be able to do an awful lot with it.

“He was fairly negative and didn’t give the board much inspiration in terms of how he was going to drive the club forward.

 “It was never going to work with his attitude towards the budget.”

But Browne argued the initial meeting to discuss finances, held on April 26, had been positive despite asking Henley to loosen the purse strings.

Browne told The (Bournemouth) Daily Echo: “I emailed Paula to say I felt the first meeting had been positive. She agreed but emphasised the club needed to live within its means.

“She intimated it would be a topic of conversation at the next board meeting and certainly didn’t put a negative slant on it.

“To sack someone based on one meeting is very strange. Brendon and I were very taken aback when the conversation (on Tuesday) started with their unhappiness over how that initial meeting had gone.

“We were never asked whether or not we would be able to work with the budget.

“At no point in that meeting on April 26 were we being negative, we were being realistic with regard to the sides coming into the league and how we could compete with them.

“We were not asking for a big budget, we just asked whether there would be any flexibility in what they had offered us to make us that bit more competitive.”

Browne, who intimated he would like to make a quick return to football, continued: “There is some kind of agenda behind the scenes. I think it is clear now that Paula didn’t want us at the club.

“The fact we did so well at the end of the season made life difficult for her with these lame excuses.

“I have had a text from a former director to say he was not surprised. That indicated to me that the budget offered was put forward on the basis that we would turn it down. When we didn’t, it gave them a problem.

“One of the biggest sources of anger for us is the fact Paula asked us to place our trust in her.

“It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth but even now, I don’t regret taking the job or anything we have done.

“We have put smiles back on faces inside and outside the club and there are players that will have improved for the experience.

“There might be difficult times ahead for Wimborne which is such a shame because with a couple of exceptions, it is a fantastic club with some really good people involved.

"The club had a really good opportunity to make some strides and the element that makes me angry is not so much what has happened to me, more the wasted momentum.”

Former Salisbury City and Hamworthy United man Browne also questioned whether the Magpies' director or football Paul Miller had been “pulling the strings” at Wimborne.

But Miller hit back, stating: “I do not influence Paula’s decisions or those of the board. Simon does not have a full understanding of what is going on at the club and has made a lot of assumptions that are not true.

“I understand why he is disappointed, but I wish him well. I hope he gets back into management soon, he deserves to.”