Football League preview – Pressure mounts on Nigel Clough and Nigel Pearson
It may only be six weeks since the season began, but already two Championship managers are rumoured to be flirting with the sack.
Nigel Pearson at Hull and Nigel Clough at Derby have endured poor starts to the season and both will be desperate for three points when their teams meet at the KC Stadium tonight.
In fairness to the Rams, they have probably performed better than their results suggest but pressure is most definitely mounting on Clough, who is approaching nearly two years in the job and there is an argument to suggest that there has been little improvement on the pitch in that time.
Pearson, surprisingly to many people, decided to leave play-off semi-finalist’s Leicester City over the summer to take the Hull job and his tenure has started incredibly poorly. The financial restrictions on the club mean Pearson has struggled to improve a confidence-starved squad that fell away sharply last season in the Premier League, and the situation involving Jimmy Bullard can’t have helped matters. So far this season the classy midfielder has been overlooked by Pearson, apparently because of his attitude and his desire to move away from Humberside, but may be involved this week as Hull desperately need inspiration from somewhere.
Another manager under scrutiny is Middlesbrough’s boss Gordon Strachan, whose summer spending spree in the SPL player has not paid off yet, with his new contingent of players struggling to adapt to the different standard of the Championship. Confidence won’t be a problem with their opponents Burnley however, who go into the game flying after their incredible 4-3 win over Preston at the weekend.
Top of the table Queens Park Rangers travel up the A12 to take on Roy Keane’s Ipswich, who know a win over the west-Londoners will lift the Tractor Boys to the top of the league. Keane’s side won this fixture 3-0 last season when the R’s were under the stewardship of Paul Hart, but Rangers are a total different animal under Neil Warnock, and are a million miles away from the mess that Hart conjured up at Loftus Road.
Coventry are on the verge of signing Marlon King this week, and the disgraced striker may be signed in time to face Swansea at the Liberty Stadium. The former Watford man has been training with the Sky Blues for the last fortnight but his signing has been delayed so far, though manager Aidy Boothroyd has said the signing of King is “imminent”.
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