Former Stanley duo John Coleman and Jimmy Bell have departed League Two rivals Gillingham.
The pair arrived at the Priestfield Stadium in January on an interim basis following Mark Bonner’s sacking.
Coleman and Bell were in charge for 14 games and oversaw two wins. The Gills scored a stoppage time equaliser in the 1-1 draw at the Wham Stadium earlier this month.
“Jimmy and I arrived at Gillingham at a difficult time, knowing we’d be here for a short time, but hoping we could turnaround performances and work rate,” Coleman told the club site.
“We believe we achieved this, particularly in recent weeks. While the results haven’t reflected the performances given at times, we are pleased to leave the team more stable and having improved both in attitude and application.
"We believe this has been vital in repairing the relationship between the team and the fans. We’ve really enjoyed working at Gillingham and wish everyone the very best moving forward.”
Blackburn-born Gareth Ainsworth is now set to leave his position at Shrewsbury to take charge at Gillingham.
Ainsworth took charge of the Shropshire club in November but has been unable to guide them off the bottom of the League One table.
A statement from Shrewsbury chairman Roland Wycherley said: “I can confirm that the club has done absolutely everything in its power to persuade Gareth to stay. Failing that, we also asked if he would continue until the end of the season.
“Gareth’s contract contained a termination clause which the League Two club in question initially refused to meet.
“We made clear from that point we would not allow him to leave and that we wanted him to honour the remainder of his contract.
“But Gareth made clear he wanted to leave immediately, despite acknowledging the position the club are in at this moment in time.
“At a board meeting yesterday afternoon, the League Two club had still refused to meet the termination clause. But at 4.41pm yesterday, STFC received confirmation that the club had agreed to pay the full termination fee for both Gareth Ainsworth and Richard Dobson.
“This took any further negotiations out of our hands – and Gareth and Richard once again expressed their desire to leave immediately.”
