The Rams appointed the former Erith & Belvedere, Corinthian and East Grinstead Town boss a day after the departure of their previous management trio Jason Lillis, Terry Sedge and Joe Radford, and his resignation has been reluctantly accepted by the club’s Board of Directors.

A statement about the resignation, which comes amid the play-offs, was posted to the Rams social accounts.

He was appointed manager in December 2019 and in April last year was announced as full-time first team coach and community officer, overseeing close to 1,000 youth team members and community partnerships throughout Thanet.

Ramsgate say he resigned due to “personal reasons.”

The statement from chairman James Lawson read: “As many are aware Matt informed the club of his decision to resign last Sunday.

“After a long period of reflection, the club has decided to accept this offer with Matt exiting from all duties at the club with immediate effect.

“We would like to place on record our thanks to Matt for his part in our rapid expansion to become one of the largest community clubs in the country.

“We have a brand new 3G surface and hugely upgraded infrastructure. The club is proud to have a squad full of extremely talented young players and we currently sit in the play-off positions with four games left whilst average home attendances have grown to around 700.

“After achieving rapid growth and becoming such an important institution in our community now is the time for professionalism and stability.

“We embark on a huge week with over 350 children attending our Easter camps ahead of a home game against fellow play-off contenders Haywards Heath Town.

“The club has projects in the pipeline that are far more ambitious than anything we have already achieved to date, and we will talk to a number of people about the first team role this week.

“We move forward more united than ever.”

Appointed by East Grinstead in October 2015, Longhurst left the Wasps five points adrift at the bottom of the table with just five points on the board on December 12^th and then joined the Rams.

East Grinstead failed to win any of their first 14 league outings.

Longhurst – who stood down as Wasps` boss in March 2017 to become assistant manager at Hastings United before returning within two weeks to retake the helm – guided East Grinstead to a 13th placed finish- the highest placing in their history.