How many clubs have stayed with a manager when they have been at the bottom with things seeming to be getting worse in November, yet………
Yesterday PNE dropped to bottom following the home defeat to Hull and Crystal Palace winning at home. The position doesn’t look good as a clear gap is appearing but the chairman gave Darren Ferguson a vote of confidence saying he’d been hit by injuries. It would be normal to expect the manager to be ousted in such a situation but PNE have paid off the two previous managers and are in business only because they have been bailed out by Trevor Hemmings. The wage bill is still said to be excessive and there are players on the books who should be gone. Meanwhile gates are low and likely to get lower. To add to the difficulty it is said that Trevor Hemmings is friendly with Alec Ferguson. Trevor Hemmings isn’t known for buying lemons and as he owns the club it doesn’t seem likely he would want to run it down or put it into administration.
On the positive side the squad isn’t as bad as it has appeared. Some of the goals conceded have been what you might say are blatant one-off errors typical of a team that are down on their confidence. Whether Darren Ferguson can turn it round isn’t clear, whether he needs someone to give him management support might be a route the club and him might be willing to take. Although how this would work and for how long will tax everyones diplomatic, communication and business skills in setting it up.
There is another route to let the team fight their way up or be relegated and then hope that Darren can pull something out of the fire and maybe gain more experience in League 1. This seems a risky strategy as its easier to go down than come up and what Darren did at Peterborough might not be repeated.
Looking at the table and fixtures, the game against QPR next week might be written off but PNE have surprised in such circumstances. The game in two weeks at home against Millwall might be more of a trial as losing that after a defeat at QPR would be a ‘6 pointer’ and things would be reaching a point of no return. With all these ponderables the obvious route of changing manager might not be the best route overall so it seems that whatever path is chosen will be clear in the next couple of weeks.