Preston North End have announced that manager Alan Irvine has been relieved of his duties at Deepdale. PNE chairman Derek Shaw announced the news on Tuesday afternoon following the defeat to Sheffield United.
The chairman said: "The decision was not taken lightly. 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."
