John Fenty Continues to Back Graham Rodger!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 29/09/2006

JOHN Fenty has again given his backing to Graham Rodger. With the shellacking the Mariners got from Hartlepool came cries for the manager's head but chairman Fenty has stood by his man.

Mr Fenty has urged the fans to get behind the manager and support him through these difficult times. To the Grimsby Telegraph, he said; "We have to remain positive. Negativity coming over to the team is not going to help matters. We have a difficult job to do but the best way to deal with that is by everybody getting behind the team and the manager."

He spoke of the injury problems we have and said; "If Manchester United lost three of their key strikers they would face problems too. Losing Isaiah Rankin, Michael Reddy and Gary Cohen has been a big disruption, but there is a long way to go."

"Of course we don't expect the team to be near the foot of the table at the end of the season and everybody is working hard to address that situation. Come the end of the season I hope we will be in the top half of the table and challenging for the play-offs."

On the calls for Rodger's head he commented; "It would be the wrong reaction to take assertive action now. Graham Rodger inherited a difficult situation because of players leaving and others being unsettled by outside influences. But Graham is black-and-white, through-and-through. We have to give him time and I suggest we judge him when he has a full squad to choose from."

"Remember in the first season that Russell Slade was here, people were calling for his head too. He assembled a good squad and in his second season we were in the top three for seven months - and some fans were even calling for him to go then!" END

Comment:

John Fenty is right in his decision to support Graham Rodger.

It is almost a knee jerk reaction to sack the manager when things are going wrong without looking at the causes and how to get things back on track again.

The fact is, he is not making excuses about the injury problems. We have three key players missing and Rodger has tried hard to find replacements for them on a temporary basis. That is not easy.

Despite the recent results, it is not the end yet.

We may not be in a position later to challenge for a promotion spot but as long as Rodger avoids the dreaded drop into the Conference, he will have done a good job in his first year of management and, hopefully, he will have learned a great deal.

By all means sack him if things look hopeless. That's the penalty that Rodger himself will be aware of, but now is not the time, in my opinion. He needs longer to prove himself and if he can get a couple of his key players back, we might begin to see some real results.

Sacking is the easy option. But that is not the way to solve our present problems however serious they seem. He needs more time and he needs the fans to stop slagging him off and, instead, getting behind him. That would help too.

Give the guy a fair go!

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