PRESTON North End manager Alan Irvine has been relieved of his duties at the Championship club.

PRESTON North End manager Alan Irvine has been relieved of his duties at the Championship club.

North End have won once in their last 10 games, slipping to 16th in the table and eight points away from danger.

The former assistant to Everton boss David Moyes took charge at Deepdale on 20 November 2007, following the sacking of Paul Simpson. He took the struggling side out of the relegation zone and into a 15th place finish in his first season, and then built on that in his first full season in charge when guiding the club to a sixth pace finish in 2008/9 before losing out to Sheffield United in the play-off semi-finals.

The Lancashire side - who are currently three places and five points above Ipswich Town in the Championship table - host League One high-fliers Colchester United on Saturday in the FA Cup third round.

“The decision was not taken lightly,” said Preston chairman Derek Shaw.

“Alan did an extremely good job in keeping us in the Championship and took us to the play-offs last season. However, after a good start to the 2009/10 campaign we have only picked up seven points from a possible 30 since our last away victory against Sheffield Wednesday on October 20th.

“In that period we have only scored six goals and that sort of record is not something we could allow to continue without addressing it.

“I would like to place on record the club's sincere thanks to Alan for his efforts in his time here. We will make further comment and announce who is in charge for the weekend's FA Cup tie later this week.”

Preston become the eighth Championship club to part company with their manager this season.