Dundalk have dismissed head coach Vinny Perth after the club's owners decided on Thursday evening to part company with the Dubliner.
The decision comes on the back of their disappointing Champions League exit to Slovenian side Celje and poor run of form in the SSE Airtricity League.
The club made a brief statement which said: "The board of Dundalk Football Club can confirm that manager Vinny Perth has left the club with immediate effect. We would like to thank Vinny for the hard work he has put in over the past seven-and-a-half years at Oriel Park.
"The success that he helped bring to the club as assistant manager and, subsequently, as head coach and manager, will never be forgotten and we wish him well for the future. John Gill and Alan Reynolds will take charge of first-team affairs until further notice.
Since football resumed, Dundalk have struggled for form and are eight points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers in third place. Since the restart, Dundalk have only managed one win, against Waterford in the Extra.ie FAI Cup.
Perth replaced Stephen Kenny at the start of 2019 and led the Louth club to the Premier Division title in his first season in charge.
Speaking with RTÉ, Perth said: "It’s not easy, but if we just wanted to be like most teams and dominate domestically, and do OK in Europe by winning a round and losing a round, then I think that could have been done, but we rolled the dice and we built a European squad or the beginnings of a European squad.
"That has caused us problems with Covid-19, but there’s no doubt that that falls at my door and, ultimately, I’m big and ugly enough to accept it, but what will be, will be."
Dundalk have 10 league games still left to play and they're also in the Europa League and FAI Cup, where they'll play in a qualifier next month.
As for their immediate future, the Lilywhites travel to Sligo Rovers this Saturday.
