from the newsandstar
Carlisle Utd win could seal fate of under-fire Charlton Athletic boss
Eleven months ago, Greg Abbott was fighting for his future at Carlisle United, with fans demanding his sacking after the Blues slipped to 19th place in League One.
On Saturday, the United boss will be aiming to steer his side back into the top two in the table with a home win over Charlton Athletic – a result which could seal the fate of the man in the opposing technical area.
Another defeat for the Addicks will push their manager Phil Parkinson a step closer to the door at The Valley.
Parkinson is facing calls for him to be sacked following his side’s humiliating 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Brighton last week – their worst home defeat for six years – which saw the promotion hopefuls slip to 14th place in League One.
The Addicks boss is thought to now have just two games to save his job as pressure mounts following their poor start to the season, but another heavy defeat on Saturday may well force the Charlton board’s hand and see Parkinson become the fifth English manager to be axed this season.
Former Carlisle skipper Simon Davey (Hereford), Paulo Sousa (Leicester City), Alan Pardew (Southampton) and Kevin Blackwell (Sheffield United) have all been sacked in the first three months of the season, while Gordon Strachan (Middlesbrough), Chris Turner (Hartlepool), Chris Sutton (Lincoln), Steve Coppell (Bristol City), Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa) have resigned.
Parkinson’s desperate battle to beat the boo-boys and save his job will have a hauntingly familiar ring to it for Abbott. The Blues boss, who has guided United into a top six place going into Saturday’s clash, faced terrace catcalls and constant demands for his head on fans’ phone-ins and internet message boards last season after seeing his side slip to 19th in League One following a 1-0 home defeat to Swindon last November.
The United board resisted calls to sack their manager and their decision paid off as he took them to Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and to League One safety last season, and this season the Blues go into Saturday’s game looking to consolidate their top six place.
In sharp contrast, unhappy Charlton supporters chanted “Parky out” at the final whistle after the Brighton debacle, and Parkinson will almost certainly come under more fire if his side lose at Brunton Park.
However, the 42-year-old insists he has no intention of walking away from what he started at The Valley two years ago and has vowed to fight on.
“I’m determined to battle on,” he said.
“I’ll roll my sleeves up and I’m ready for the fight.
“Of course I accept that Saturday’s performance wasn’t good enough and I will be working harder than ever to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“What the supporters have to understand is that while it was a heavy defeat, it was only our second loss in eight games and it’s the only really bad one we’ve had.
“I’ve been the manager of this club in the most difficult financial circumstances in its history and last year we were a penalty kick away from reaching Wembley in the play-offs.
“I’ve had to build a completely new team while practically halving the wage budget for the second year running. That’s not easy.
“While our league position isn’t what I want it to be I’m confident we’ll be up there by the end of the season.
“Look at what happened to Millwall last year. It took them a while to regroup after they missed out in the play-offs and the same is happening to Swindon this season. Neither team had anywhere near the amount of changes in players we’ve had to deal with.”
Parkinson couldn’t have had two more daunting matches to try to engineer a turnaround in Charlton’s season.
After Saturday’s trip to Brunton Park, the face another top-six side when they host Sheffield Wednesday at The Valley a week later.
Their cause has not been helped by the news that winger Kyel Reid has been ruled out for four weeks with ankle ligament damage and will miss Saturday’s trip.
The former West Ham player left the field on a stretcher during last week’s defeat and a scan has confirmed he will be on the sidelines until mid-November.
0
Comments
Really Parky, Really - shall we ask Lennie?
Jesus its a quote, it may have been shortened, it may not whatever these are the most difficult times financially in the clubs history almost, the point he is making is that its bloody difficult financial times, if he was going to be an expert word smith he'd be sitting with cameron and milliband and clegg. Slag him off for Saturday but do we really have to be so obsessively picky about every sentence that is reported to have passed his lips.
I think by the Yeovil game - these four games are pretty tough and if we get nothing out of them then we will be along way from the play offs, so thats about mid Nov.
We do when it seems every second sentence is a reference to mitigating circumstances beyond his control which he implies are the reason for the poor performances.
I just wish he would stop making excuses and accept responsibility (at least collective responsibility with the players) for the poor performances by the team.
I used to be one of those happy to give him time, but now my patience is very thin and a poor result tomorrow should be the end of his reign, but, I am unsure of the next step as we are hardly going to attract anyone decent with the current financial state, so my fear is that we're stuck with him.
Anyone got Zabeel's phone number again???
Clearly he would say all those things if he was just hoping to keep his job long enough to get lucky, either by being offered another job or by our results picking up.
However, he might actually believe that what he has is good enough to win promotion by the end of the season. At times we have looked good enough this season. It's the inconsistencies and the individual errors that have made the difference to our results. A little tweak here and a bit of luck there and we could well have won the four games we drew and taken a point at Exeter. That would have yielded us another nine points which would have meant we were top before we played Brighton, then who knows what would have happened.
I know that didn’t happen, but it shows that the margin between failure and success is small, maybe he really does believe that over the next 34 games we will pick up enough points to finish in the top six, or even top two.
Even if he knows that we are not good enough, and suspects that we will fall short (maybe even very short) at the end of the season, it does no good to the players’ confidences if he admits it now, and I think one of our major problems this season is confidence.
Until he leaves (which he will obviously do at some point) we need to give him, and the team, our full support.
For the record I’m not super pro Parky, I didn’t want him to get the job in November 2008, I didn’t want him appointed permanently in December 2008, I think relegation was avoidable and should have been, and I think that with the players he had last season anything less than top two was a failure. However, all the time he is in post what suits me best is for him to be as successful as possible, and his comments are probably more likely to bring success than anything else he could have said.
So when he says after the brighton game he accepts full not collective but full responsiblity he picks the team he is not acceptiong any responsibility then.
"I take full responsibility because I'm the manager and I pick the team and decide how we're going to play."
http://tinyurl.com/2uejsbh
I am not expecting that to happen, but if it does then the jackals will merely wait for the next loss and we will have another week of doom and gloom. I am not expecting Parkie to see December in a charlton role, but that will be due to results not failing to say the odd word in an interview.
Thing is that I actually believe that too. However, what I don't believe is that he is good enough to deliver it. He has worked wonders to assemble the squad he has but unfortunately he isn't the man we need to shape them into a team capable of achieving promotion.
but we could have just as easily lost against Notts County and D&R at home and MKD and Bournemouth should have been draws. IMO we have more points than we actually deserve at the moment.
Can't argue with that!
That would be fine if he left it at that. But when he subsequently starts trying to excuse the performances because of things outside his control it rather detracts from his original 'I take full responsibility.....' statement.
I am onviously happy with what he has said and you are not and neither of us will move on that but my original point was not that he was making exscuses but that every single utterance is being scrutinized and it is really no different sayiny that we are in the worst financial mess ever that one of the worst financial messes as there are enough sticks to beat him with at this time without being picky.
None of our managers going back to Eddie Firmani have accepted responsibility without adding caveats and it is totally acceptable to do so, half of them if not all did not accept any responsibility and to compare Parkie to Pardew is ludicrous.
Yeah, I was thinking that when I wrote it, but if we assume that this team is going to find it's feet at some point then what I was trying to say is that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he could get us to a top six finish. Certainly he is well within his rights to believe it, and to say so.
Sadly if he is just trying to save his job he would say exactly that so who knows what he believes, and he could believe it and it still not happen.
Should not be hard they just need to look down
Ok, we'll agree to disagree. But what do you mean by your '...comparing Parky to Pardew is ludicrous' comment? Is that a reference to another thread?
Will Benson be like Morison and get the necessary goals, Morison also had a slowish start?
Is Parky a better coach/manager/tactician/motivator than Jackett?
Is our squad better than Milwalls last season? (remember they had Dave Martin and Whitbread this time last season I think)
Do we really believe Parky will turn things around?
I am confident most fans would answer no to 3/4 of those questions.
???
Not sure if this is a serious question.
Assuming you weren't at the match, or left early... Yes. After the fourth goal.
He is, but then probably every under pressure manager who knows that time is running out sounds the same.
What else can he say?
It's difficult.But he could try to break the mould and say something bold and honest and put himself on the line.
How about : ''If we're not at least in a play-off place by Xmas, I'll accept that I've failed and I'll understand if the board wants to make a change.''
I think that would earn the respect of most fans and it would give the players the opportunity to show how much they are really behind him.
And it wouldn't be that bold a gamble on his part, either. if he fails to deliver, he'd get paid off the remaining five months on a contract that wasn't going to be renewed, anyway.
Exactly. Same as last season.
There weren't that many but the angry mob will get bigger with each poor result.