But Hundon’s committee worked hard to stop Jolland joining the others out the exit door before appointing him as the sole man in charge of the Suffolk villagers.

The ex-Wickhambrook boss had already seen his previous team drop out of the Kershaw Premier League because of a lack of players and was worried he was seeing the same happen again.

Jolland, who led his side to a 4-1 win at Kershaw Premier League champions in his first sole game in charge, said: “The Hundon committee pulled it together and made me want to carry on but I was disappointed with players and my co-manager walking away because I found myself in the same situation at Wickhambrook.”

Jolland was given a quick route back into football by Pilgrim in the summer after Wickhambrook dropped out of the Cambs League.

He took the five or six remaining players he had with him to Hundon and the club started the season well, carrying on from their third-placed finish last season.

But Pilgrim left at the end of October citing the reason that ‘too many people were having says at the club’ and an upset Jolland was close to following after that statement.

However, Hundon chairman Mick Coe and the rest of the club’s committee held talks with Jolland and convinced him to remain in his job.

Jolland said: “A few players have walked away and I’ve told them ‘you’re with me or you can walk away’.All the players here are good lads and we’ve got to go forward.”

The new Hundon manager, who lives in Newmarket, was also concerned that, without Pilgrim, he had no local connection to the club but has moved to appoint ex-Hundon player Mark Ward as his assistant.

The new management team watched their side dismantle defending champions Waterbeach on Saturday.

Jody Bowman scored a stunning 35-yard effort with Paul Stokes adding two more and Matt Fulcher the other in a 4-1 away win.

But Jolland insisted Waterbeach’s struggles showed how much stronger the league was this year.

“Every game is hard in that league,” he said. “It’s so tight – if we win on Saturday we can go second but lose a couple and we could be down the bottom half.”