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Suddenly though the insecurity of football management has returned and three have lost their job within 48 hours starting with John Cornforth at Exeter. Cornforth was dismissed immediately after Exeter’s 1-0 home defeat against York on Saturday with them in 21st place in Division Three.
Uri Geller is in charge there and was predicting great things for the Grecians but the spoon bender has seen his side make a dismal start to the new season. Youth coach Eamonn Dolan has taken over temporarily but they are seeking a new manager from outside the club.
Today saw the first change in our division and it came as no surprise at all that it was Brighton's Martin Hinshelwood. He took over just before the start of the season when Peter Taylor did another runner and got off to a winning start with a 3-1 win on the Turf. He followed that up with a point as Coventry held them to a 0-0 draw at the Withdean Stadium but that has been it. Ten league defeats have followed and their only other success was a 2-1 win at home in the Worthington Cup against Exeter.
Chairman Dick Knight backed him after the sixth league defeat but did say that he would have to seriously review the situation if that bad run increased to ten. It did and Hinshelwood has been replaced. He isn’t leaving though and will become the Director of Football with Steve Coppell having been appointed as manager.
Coppell left Brentford in the summer and was strongly tipped for the Brighton job before it was given to Hinshelwood. He has recently been working with Andy King at Swindon but he was all set to quite there because of the transfer embargo in place. That he has done and he takes over at Brighton with immediate effect.
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The Sunderland fans were worried that Adrian Heath would stand in as caretaker but that won't happen as Heath and the rest of Reid’s staff have also lost their jobs.
Heath left Burnley in 1997 and has hardly had any success in over five years since. A relegation battle with Everton was followed by some reserve team work at Sunderland. Then there was the ill-fated spell at Sheffield United before he returned to work with Sunderland reserves. He joined the first team staff at the beginning of last season and it has been a poor run since.
He was linked with a return to Turf Moor at one time but thankfully that didn’t happen. He was never popular in the north east and today finds himself looking for another new job.