Colin Todd insists his departure from Darlington was entirely down to chairman Raj Singh, following the League Two club's draw with Grimsby.

But Todd rejected the suggestion he has "taken the easy way out".

He said: "I didn't resign from the football club. I never resigned at all.

"A decision was made by the chairman that if we didn't win the game we would part company.

"I don't like the word resigned. What that seems to say is I'm taking the easy way out.

"I haven't taken the easy way out. A decision was made by the chairman and it was entirely his decision."

Todd took over at Darlington four months ago and was tasked with assembling almost an entirely new first-team squad after a raft of departures.

He said: "Everybody knew it was going to be difficult. The big advantage other teams had over us was they had the nucleus of a squad from last season.

"I honestly thought we would have had more points and we could have had more points.

"We pressed the self-destruct button at times, and missed penalties which could have given us a point, but the biggest problem was trying to get some continuity."

Singh earlier issued a statement saying the decision was reached by mutual consent.

"It's with great regret we're having to part company in these circumstances, albeit amicably," he said.

"We were delighted with the work Colin did during the summer in assembling a playing squad from virtually scratch, guiding the club through an extremely turbulent time and we're forever grateful to him for that.

"He's a good guy and I always found him very easy to work with and I'd like to thank him for everything he did for us.

"But we have to do something to turn things around and Colin is well experienced to realise the situation we're in would always ask questions.

"It's regrettable it has come to this but Colin is keen to do what's right for the club and accepts the time is right for him to step aside."