Town Down to Six

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 16/11/2009

TOWN Chairman John Fenty's short list for the vacant Grimsby managerial vacancy has been revealed as: Russell Slade, Neil Woods, John McDermott, Gerry Taggart, Gary Brabin and Lee Richardson. Three of the six are well known to the club; the others have no association with Town.

Russell Slade is Grimsby's most successful manager of the last decade. He came within a minute of getting automatic promotion for Town three years ago. He since had some success with Yeovil and Brighton, but got the sack from both jobs after poor runs. The highlight of his career was when took Yeovil to the League One play-off final, 12 months after taking Grimsby to Wembley.

Neil Woods has been a player and coach at the club for almost 20 years, and is the current caretaker boss. He has won several trophies with the youth team and produced several players who have gone on to become first team regulars.

John McDermott, like Woods, is a link with Grimsby's more successful past. Macca, Grimsby's record appearance holder, was a one club man, and was captain at Blundell Park for many years. Macca is currently working as a coach at the Grimsby Academy.

Gerry Taggart is a coach at Leicester City, and has never managed a club. He won 51 caps with Northern Ireland between 1990 and 2002, and mainly played in the top two divisions in English football. After retiring from football in 2007 he became a coach the Walkers Stadium.

Gary Brabin is currently chief scout at Luton Town, but has managed non-league sides Southport and Cambridge United. His playing career was mainly in the lower leagues and at the level of the Conference.

Lee Richardson was Chesterfield manager until the summer, where he had been for two years. The club decided not to renew his contract at the end of last season. Richardson mainly played in the bottom two divisions in England.

New Peterborough manager Mark Cooper had also been on the short list, but the time taken by Town to appoint a new manager meant he got another job in the meantime.

An appointment is expected early this week, and the new manager's first game will be Lincoln away!

Grim Rob Says Of the six the only one who has had any success as a manager is Slade, who took two sides to the play-off finals at Wembley. Woods and McDermott are both tempting but we need someone who can turn it around in the next six months - we cannot afford to make a mistake. None of the three non-Grimsby candidates stands out for me, but I haven't heard any of them speak (and recall it). Let's hope the board can make the right decision!

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