NICKY Banger has walked away from Lymington & New Milton because he felt restricted by the role of head coach.

The 35-year-old ex-Saints striker is ambitious to get into management, but hit a brick wall when he approached Linnets team boss Ian Robinson about sharing the managerial duties at Fawcett's Field.

Banger, the former corporate manager of Eastleigh, had taken on a similar role at the Southern Division 1 South & West club, but believed his selling skills would be better complemented if he was also in charge of team affairs.

Banger explained: "I had £50,000 of sponsorship lined up for Lymington but I believe the corporate manager and the team manager's job go hand in hand.

"When you're talking to potential sponsors, it carries more weight to say you are manager than head coach.

"I had a word with Ian about becoming joint manager, but when Robbo came back from holiday he said it wasn't the way he wanted to go.

"I respect that, but for the club to build up its revenue streams and local support, people have got to see success on the pitch and we were achieving that towards the end of last season.

"When I went to the club they were struggling, but I brought in people like Tyronne Bowers, Barry Mason and Jon Grace and we finished the season with seven wins and a draw in our last ten games.

"I was going to try and improve the coaching side of things and push for promotion next season, but if I'm doing most of the work I don't see why I shouldn't get the credit of sharing the manager's job.

"With Ian's experience in non-League and my enthusiasm and tactical knowledge I would have thought we'd make a great pair two heads are better than one.

"But if you're devoting every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to football for 40 weeks a year, that's a lot of time to give up if you're not completely happy with what you're doing."

Banger says he happy to bide his time now and wait for the right football job to come along.

"I know the direction I want to go in and I don't want to be a head coach any more, I want to get into management," he stressed.

"With the way football is going, I believe managers should have tactical knowledge and coaching qualifications and I find it frustrating to work under someone when I know more about the tactical side of football than he does.

"I had it with Dos (Eastleigh manager Paul Doswell) and Robbo. People talk about management skills, but I think a manager should have at least a UEFA B qualification so they understand football.

"It frustrates me that better qualified people can't get jobs."