Mutual Consent

Or sometimes not.

There has been a bewildering number of managerial changes in non-league football over the past few weeks. 

Few managers can ever have been more bewildered by their sacking than Mark Poulton, of Chichester City, who play in the Sussex County League and are therefore usually below the radar of this blog.  There's been a power struggle going on at Chichester, who fired their previous manager Adie Girdler during the close season, replacing him with Poulton.  That led to some discontent among Chichester supporters, and the suspension of the club chairman, pending a general meeting.  The meeting saw the chairman overthrown; the new regime fired Poulton and reinstated Girdler.  Nothing particularly remarkable about that, you might think: but it was the way the sacking was handled that excited comment, from far beyond the borders of Nonleagueland.  For Poulton was informed of his dismissal by telephone; and if that weren't bad enough, the call was made during a game, while Poulton was on the bench, managing the team. For sheer crassness it doesn't quite match Tottenham Hotspur's dismissal of Martin Jol a couple of years ago - Jol, you may remember, had his dismissal leaked to the press during a televised home game and before he had been told about it - but it's pretty close.
In MArk POulton's position, I'd have been sorely tempted to bring off the Chichester goalkeeper and replace him with the smallest available substitute.

Elsewhere . . .

Kettering Town have appointed Marcus Law as their permanent manager following the departure of Lee Harper.  Law was previously boss of Barwell, who had gone 61 League games undefeated at the time he left them.  He has an excellent reputation, and seems to have made a good impression as Kettering boss.


Graham Heathcote has left Altrincham, where he had been boss for eight years, and player for a long time before that.  Alty are one of the better-run clubs in the Blue Square Prem, consistently returning an operating profit, though they have been helped in recent years by the misfortunes of other clubs.  One hopes that the loss of Heathcote, along with the club's long-serving chairman, won't have an effect on the way the club is run.

York City manger Martin Foyle left the club a couple of weeks ago, and is yet to be replaced.

Hednesford, of the Southern League Premier Division, saw their manager - former Northern Ireland international Bernard McNally - leave the club a couple of weeks ago.  Hednesford does seem to be a club where they have difficulty holding on to managers, despite a reasonably successful period on the field over the past few years.  McNally was replaced at Keys Park by former Telford manager Rob Smith, whose predecessor at Telford was McNally.  Hednesford fans seem extremely pleased by Smith's appointment.

Worksop Town, of the Northern Premier League, Premier Division, got rid of their boss Peter Rinckavage, despite their making an impressive start to the season.  That led to a remarkable player revolt, with several players publicly expressing their dismay.   Rinckavage was replaced by Martin McIntosh, who has considerable experience as a League player, in England and Scotland, but non non-league managerial experience.  Worksop is a club I am keeping a close eye on this season: I've got them in an each-way yankee at a tasty 50/1.  Imagine my glee, then, when Worksop won today, 3-0 against Ashton Utd  to keep their promotion push going.  Today was McIntosh's first game in charge of Worksop.   (The other teams I've got in my e/w yankee are Chelmsford City, 10/1; Cambridge City, 14/1; and Kingstonian, 15/2.  Things looking encouraging!)

Rinckavage moved almost immediately to take over as boss of Frickley Athletic, another team to fire their manager in the past few days.

Paul Gascoigne was widely reported to have agreed to take over as manager of Garforth Town.  He hadn't, and it appears he won't; but the rumour was enough to give Garforth a bumper gate - by their standards - for a home game against Warrington.   Though it definitely wasn't a publicity stunt by the club.  I just thought I'd make that clear.