Nottingham Forest are looking for a new manager after losing faith in Mark Warburton and sacking him on the back of their 14th league defeat of the season.

Warburton was informed on Sunday morning that the club, currently 14th in the Championship with only one win from their last seven games, wanted a change after a poor run of form that has featured back-to-back defeats against managerless Sheffield Wednesday and relegation-threatened Sunderland. Frank McParland, the director of football, has also left the City Ground and Gary Brazil, the academy director, will take charge of Monday’s first-team game at Leeds on a caretaker basis.

Warburton was appointed towards the end of the Fawaz al-Hasawi regime last season but has lost 18 out of 34 league games and the new owners, led by the Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, have lost confidence in him at a time where there is a renewed mood of optimism at the club.

Forest’s average attendance has gone up by around 5,000 under the Marinakis regime but there is only one club, Birmingham City in bottom place, who have lost more games. Forest have one of the worst defensive records in the league and the new owners have concluded that his policy of relying on younger players has made them too vulnerable for the Championship, with the transfer window due to open on Monday and a clear difference of opinion between Warburton and the owners about the club’s direction.