Nottingham Forest have confirmed manager Gary Megson has left the club "by mutual consent".

Forest have failed to force their way into contention for promotion in League One after being relegated from the Coca-Cola Championship last season.

Megson leaves the City Ground on the back of a 3-0 defeat to Oldham, with the club sitting in 13th place and just four points above the drop zone.

Appointed as replacement for Joe Kinnear in January of 2005, Megson failed to save the Reds from relegation from the Championship at the end of last season.

And the City Ground club have since failed to mount the sustained challenge for promotion out of League One demanded by supporters.

Forest have won just one league match on the road so far this season and have drawn three and lost four of their last seven fixtures.

And a club statement read: "Nottingham Forest can confirm manager Gary Megson has left the club by mutual consent.

"The board will be meeting to discuss the matter of an interim managerial appointment. The club will make no further statement until chairman Nigel Doughty has spoken to the football staff and the players."

Reds goalscoring great Garry Birtles says Forest should consider placing former boss Paul Hart in caretaker charge at the City Ground.

He said: "We've seen Leicester and Derby recently lose their managers and make interim appointments. That could be the way forward for Forest and I think they could do a lot worse than get Paul Hart back in until the end of the season.

"Harty knows the academy there and he knows the club." Birtles admits promotion is now only "an outside possibility".

"Gary Megson would be the first to tell you football is a results-based business and the run the club has been on has been very bad. You look at the table and Forest are just four points clear of the relegation zone and even though I don't think the club will get relegated, expectations reach a lot higher than that in Nottingham.

"Promotion is still a possibility, but I think it's an outside possibility. There are only 13 games left in the season and I think it would need other teams above Forest to start losing games were it to happen."

Hart had himself been dismissed as Reds boss back in December 2004 with Kinnear his replacement and Megson's predecessor.

He is currently available after losing his job as Barnsley boss in March last year and was strongly linked with Notts County before the appointment of Gudjon Thordarson.

But Birtles suspects plenty of problems await whoever assumes control of the troubled club.

"We've all heard the rumours about Gary having lost the dressing room," said Birtles. "But we also heard stories about players' ill discipline and lack of fitness when Gary arrived.

"The players certainly have to take their share of responsibility for the situation the club find themselves in."