Following the ending of Darren Ferguson’s term at PNE his father Sir Alex Ferguson has immediately recalled two loan players and a third who is on a longer contract is wanted back. Two of the players appear to have made a mark. With PNE having no money to buy decent players it isn’t clear what effect this will have as North End also have several other loan players who seemed to be here, gone, then back. The best players like St Ledger seem not to be giving their best and some players who had previously seemed good to have lost form and been loaned elsewhere. Whether this can be made right and some stability returned must be an objective.
David Unsworth has been put in charge for the next 2 games. Phil Brown is the bookies favourite although PNE might be hoping that David Unsworth gets some results and can be offered a cheaper, shorter contract. David Unsworth would seem the best outcome for this season and long term if he can get some early results and this is a great opportunity for him. A concern about Phil Brown might be that with Hull he had the support of a wealthy backer who completely transformed the club, although often money achieves less than expected and it was a meteoric rise similar to Darren Ferguson at Peterborough but they didn’t have the money to take it further.