Keith Curle leaves Oldham Athletic but fellow ex-Stags boss Steve Evans staying put at Gillingham

And another ex-Stags boss, Steve Evans, will not be the new Stevenage boss after Gillingham rejected an approach for his services with the Scot being out of contract this summer.

Curle's Oldham have won only one of their past nine games in all competitions and are currently third from bottom.

Also, Tuesday's defeat at Northampton was their 11th this term - more than any team in the division.

Curle, 58, led the troubled Latics to just nine wins from his 40 games in charge and leaves with the club currently two points outside the relegation zone.

But fans' protests have been directed at the club's owners rather than the manager and Curle's departure is Abdallah Lemsagam's ninth change in head coach since his arrival at the club in 2018.

In a statement the Latics said: “The club would like to thank Keith for his efforts during his time at Boundary Park and would also like to wish him well for the future. His assistant Colin West has also been relieved of his duties.

“Selim Benachour will step up from the academy and take over as interim head coach for the time being, with the club making no further comment now as the team continues its preparations for the game at the weekend.”

Stevenage dismissed manager Alex Revell after their home defeat by Mansfield less than two weeks ago and made an approach to League One Gillingham about obtaining the services of Evans, 59, who is in the final year of a three-year deal.

But Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has turned down the approach.

“He (Scally) did let me know in an email yesterday that he turned that request down to Stevenage,” said Evans.

“That's within his rights and duties as the chairman and owner of this football club to do that.

“I have a meeting with him later today, not just to discuss that, he may take that further and discuss it with me, he may not, that's his prerogative.

“But as a matter of public record everyone knows my contract's up at the end of the season, I've had chats with the chairman over the last couple of weeks on that.

“The chairman knows where I want to go in the summer and the one thing we are going to try and do collectively is win on Saturday and win some points going forward.”

Stevenage would have to pay Gillingham compensation, reported to be £130,000, if Evans joined them now as Peterborough United did when Evans quit Stags to join them.

Evans has won 41 and lost 41 of the 122 games he has been in charge of the Gills and they are 19th, two points and two places above the drop zone.