STEVE Dolton has become the fifth director to step down from Oxford United's board in less than a week.

The 55-year-old was playing a leading role in the club's search for a new manager - as he had done with the appointment of Pep Clotet last summer.

But his exit comes in the wake of Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth's takeover last week.

Dolton, who joined the board in March 2016, attended the Thai businessman's press conference on Monday and was due to attend a meeting with him afterwards.

Now the records at Companies House show the termination of his appointment, as of today (February 28).

He follows Benn Brown, Simon Kelner, Lionel Tarassenko and Peter Lee, who departed last Friday.

It leaves just three board members at United - David Jones, who was working with Dolton in the manager hunt, Thanakarnjanasuth and Darryl Eales.