TERRY Smith has taken a back seat from managing Blackfield & Langley - for health reasons.

Smith, who returned to the Gang Warily hot-seat nearly a year ago, has a faulty heart valve and has been advised to take a break from the stresses and strains of football.

Smith underwent a heart by-pass operation ten years ago and said: "I've got to go down two or three cogs.

"Having spoken to the chairman, the club have told me to stay away until after Christmas while I sort myself out. I'll rethink my situation then."

After miraculously turning Blackfield's fortunes around last season, Smith has had a tougher time of it this term and the second-to-bottom Watersiders now face an uphill battle for Jewson Wessex survival in only their third season in the league.

In his absence, former Hythe & Dibden and Fawley boss Tony Feeney has taken up the managerial reins, having played over 500 games for Blackfield as a player.

He only returned to the club around six weeks ago when Smith appointed him as his coach and right-hand man.

Smith is not ruling out a return to management, but his enjoyment of the job has been tested to the limit this season.

Some of his players have let him down and he has grown increasingly frustrated by some dubious refereeing, which has prompted the likes of striker John Rowley and skipper Wayne Oakley to reconsider their futures in the game.

Smith admitted: "After the events at Downton a couple of weeks back when Wayne was sent off, I felt like jacking it in too.

"Of all the clubs I've managed, I've really enjoyed myself at Blackfield but, when I do a job, I give it 150 per cent and, if people around me aren't giving the same, then that just piles more pressure on me."

Smith is the second Jewson Wessex League boss this season to have stepped down from management due to ill health.

Mick Marsh is currently taking time out from Gosport Borough, suffering with high blood pressure.