North Wales Cruaders CEO Andy Moulsdale insists the club will not rush a decision to appoint Mike Grady's successor at the club.

The end of head coach Grady's 18-month tenure was confirmed on Wednesday morning following a poor start to the campaign for the League One outfit.

Despite overseeing an extensive recruitment drive in the off-season, which drew a wealth of quality and experience to the club's ranks, early results have been disappointing.

The Cru remain winless after three league games and crashed out of the Challenge Cup after a heavy defeat at Featherstone.

Grady's assistant Johnny Leather will take charge for Friday's game against West Wales Raiders, but Moulsdale says that appointing a new head coach on a permanent basis will take time.

He said: "This was a decision taken carefully by board members and not a knee-jerk reaction so early in the season.

"And for the same reason we won't be rushing into making a decision on who should replace Mike either.

“Obviously results have been poor and to a certain extent that was partly behind this decision, but performances have not been good enough either.

“With the squad available at the club we expected better, because some of the lads here have experience of either winning this division or know what’s required to do well in it.

"There will be quite a few candidates to consider for the role and myself and the board will do our best to ensure we get the right man in.

"It's a position which has already attracted a lot of interest and my phone has hardly stopped ringing since we confirmed that there was vacancy.

"Johnny's been put in charge and we know already that he's a good coach and very capable in the role.

"He'll be overseeing training and preparing the lads for what will be a tough game for them at West Wales and we're confident he'll give it everything and do well for us."

A poor Cru performance in the 30-2 home reverse to Oldham last weekend signalled the end of Grady's tenure.

The defeat saw the Roughyeds run in seven tries and amass 30 unanswered points in the one-sided contest.

And now stand-in coach Leather hopes the frustrations of that display can inspire big improvements tomorrow.

He said: “The lads are really motivated after last weekend’s performance.

“You could see the disappointment throughout the dressing room after Sunday’s defeat and we need to quickly put things right.

“It’s a quick turnaround for us, but in a way I think that it will be a good thing – Sunday’s disappointment will be a motivating factor for us, and what we’ve done wrong will be fresh in our minds.”