BILLERICAY Town Football Club owner Glenn Tamplin has made a dramatic U-turn after previously assuring the Echo that the team’s cheerleaders had not been sacked and would remain at the club.

Following reports from national newspapers that he had sacked the dancers, Mr Tamplin said that the Ricays, as they are known, would be ready to perform at the club’s pre-season friendly with a West Ham United XI tomorrow.

The owner and manager of the football club then took to Twitter, saying: “Cheerleaders now because of all the ridiculous press, we actually are not going ahead now. That’s final, no cheerleaders.”

The tweet came just two hours after confirmation from Mr Tamplin that the Ricays would be appearing at the game tomorrow evening.

He said: “Cheerleaders performing Tuesday game against West Ham as the girl that gave her number has been sacked, so looking forward to seeing them in action Tuesday.”

He was angered at having to refute the reports from some national newspapers as he was planning on bringing out the group as a surprise to the fans who had previously seen his tweet.

Mr Tamplin said: “I did tweet that I had to let the cheerleaders go.

“But what is amazing is that the Sun tried to contact me and I said ‘no comment’ because I wanted to surprise the fans.”

He added that one member of the cheerleading team had been removed due to the girl distracting the focus of the players.

The Sun reported the group’s departure and although Mr Tamplin said those reports were premature, he has now confirmed it is the case.

Mr Tamplin also stated that the Only Way is Essex star, Mark Wright, had nothing to do with the decision to remove the group or any of its members as was stated in the national papers’ reports.

He said: “Mark Wright is nothing to do with the club.

“We did not sell him shares.”

Mr Tamplin, following a tweet he had posted, spoke with a leader of the Ricays, Rebecca Batchelor, from Benfleet.

He said that they discussed the issue of the cheerleaders’ presence which had led to the players becoming unfocused.

He said: “I told them to go because of what was happening.

“Rebecca rang me because of one girl.

“The reason the girls were not at the Leyton Orient game was because I was not there.”

The cheerleaders were also expected to feature at the first game of what Billericay hope would be a promotion-clinching season against Kingstonian on Saturday.

However, due to the reports and issues brought up surrounding the the group, it would appear the Ricays will not appear again.

The Echo did try to contact Rebecca Batchelor but she denied to comment.