A FOOTBALL club has issued an apology after its manager tweeted jibes attacking the mental health of rival club’s player - with the incident explained as "unintentional" and caused by a "lack of Twitter understanding".

John Coventry, manager of Tilbury Football Club, and his son, also John Coventry, a first team coach at Isthmian League North club, have apologised for causing offence for the tweets aimed at Southend Manor FC’s new goalkeeper Luca Collins.

The Essex Senior League club announced the signing of Collins, who had been on a short break from football, on Monday.

John Coventry and his son had posted tweets under the announcement of the signing alluding to “mental health” issues suffered by the player.

The club has held talks with the manager and have concluded the statement he had made “was unintentional” and “ended up in the public domain through lack of twitter understanding”.

The club’s full statement says: “Tilbury Football Club take mental health very seriously and are supportive of any mental health organisation and their service users.  As a club we actively support local charities in providing free facilities on a weekly basis to do a small part in assisting ongoing treatment, support and recovery.  The club also supports the local authority with their service users looking to get back into a social setting and football by inviting service users as our guest to home fixtures. 


“Having spoken at length to John this morning he has satisfied the committee this was unintentional and ended up in the public domain through lack of twitter understanding.  John remorsefully apologised for the tweet and any stress, anxiety and distress he may have caused to anyone specifically the player in question.  John has also accepted this cannot and will not happen in the future and he will be seeking to better understand mental health and its consequences.  


“Tilbury Football club does not condone or endorse the comments and would like to also extend their apologises on behalf of our management team for the undue stress this has caused Southend Manor their players, staff and supporters. 


“As a conclusion to the above I would like to extend our offer to any mental health organisations that should they wish for a day out assisting with their service users recovery and their respective staff Tilbury FC would like to offer you a visit to our ground for a home fixture as our guests. 


“The club would now like to draw to draw a line under this situation and move forward.  We will not be commenting further on this incident.”