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Steve Staunton sacked as Quakers boss

12:09pm Sunday 21st March 2010 in


DARLINGTON have sacked manager Steve Staunton following the club's latest defeat.

The 41-year-old former Republic of Ireland boss only took over at the Northern Echo Arena in October after the sacking of Colin Todd, but has been unable to prevent the Quakers from falling 19 points short of safety at the foot of League Two.

Yesterday's 2-1 home defeat to Barnet was watched by a record-low crowd of 1,463.

Chairman Raj Singh said he was left with little option when it came to ending Staunton's five-month stay with the club.

"It is with regret that were having to part company with another manager during what's been a forgetful season for us, but we felt we were left with no alternative after yesterday," he said.

"The most disappointing side to yesterday was the attendance - a record low crowd told us a lot. We desperately wanted things to work out for Steve but it clearly wasnt to be."

Craig Liddle and Neil Maddison are to take temporary charge of first-team affairs until a permanent appointment is made.

Comments(13)

simmo3578 says...
2:16pm Sun 21 Mar 10

the man should never of been appointed. they should of got brian little when they had the chance before colin todd. relegation is a mere formality so they should see if they can tempt him now and give him at least 3 years to rebuild the team. drop the prices to £10 and kids for a quid, kids will want burgers and drinks etc and revenue will come in.

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toondoonsouth says...
3:47pm Sun 21 Mar 10

Yep, Singh has at long last got something right after allowing the Club and the Town to become a laughing stock.
Now a proper manager can come in and assess the squad (which should take about five minutes) and rebuild for an assault on the Conference.

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BTH says...
4:19pm Sun 21 Mar 10

A defining moment for Darlington Football Club. Not only does Mr Singh have to get it right with the new manager but it is also imperative that he gets it right with the season ticket prices. A price freeze or a reduction of only £20-£30 will not wash with most supporters based on what we have seen this season. Mr Singh has got some very serious decisions to make over the next few days.

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gramps427 says...
5:03pm Sun 21 Mar 10

Well done Mr Singh, a little late and for the wrong reason(crowd numbers, really!); still not an easy or nice thing to do especially after all the talk previously. Like many I say bring Brian back, but if he's not available we need a player coach or player manager; an ex Darlo player coming to the end of his high flying career in the premier league would be a possibility, especially if they had taken their full badge. Don't rush in, take a little time Mr Singh this decision needs to stick.

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ace38 says...
11:57pm Sun 21 Mar 10

An ex-Darlo player near the end of his `high flying` career in the Premier League? Robbie Blake is the only one I can think of in that category. Brian Little would be a good choice, however, managers are rarely successful second time round. Take Howard Kendal at Everton for example. Darlo need someone with a good proven managerial record, but such men would not touch the job with a barge pole. Why not ask Gareth Southgate if he would like the job?

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monteforte says...
2:15am Mon 22 Mar 10

Staunton another scapegoat for Singh and cronies running this club down..Two managers chosen by this regime and now sacked ,decent players shunned ,relegation , rock bottom team, no future in football League.When did we last see a decent game ?
What we have witnessed this season with Singh is the slick quick demolition of a great footballing club with its proud 125 year history now in tatters.Darlo FC is now beyond a joke!....
We have heard all the rhetoric through Singh all season, cancer, Darlo supporters don't care,groundhog day,this season came to fast , and so on,,,many negative excuses not much positive action..
Its a"cover up" putting the blame down to others,so they can get back on track with Darlo Council and the investors....
Expect more sensational news shortly .The servile nodding donkeys have already been briefed and the other **** are being tempted by bigger carrots to get master plan back on fast track...
Forget football with this lot they play a different game....

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gums says...
9:39am Mon 22 Mar 10

monteforte - you should check your facts to stop you looking stupid. This regime has only appointed Staunton - Todd was a Houghton legacy.

For those calling for Brian Little - the game has changed immensely over the last TWENTY years and Little's memory should not be tarnished by bringing him back - he's hardly pulled up any trees at Wrexham or Gainsborough Trinity where he now resides.

We need a man with some lower league managerial experience who is still hungry for the game

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monteforte says...
10:23am Mon 22 Mar 10

FAO,;Gums; Todd was appointed for the new regime with Singh at the helm.During Admin' Singh worked alongside Houghton with the administrators . You're saying Houghton had an imput ,if thats the case Singh is only a yes man.( Vice Chairman):!
As regards stupid that term may apply as we have no worthy Football club under Singh. Under this regime the blame will always be cast elsewhere.Wake up and see whats going on!

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gums says...
11:23am Mon 22 Mar 10

Todd was NOT appointed BY Singh.

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JOrd8531 says...
3:17pm Mon 22 Mar 10

I don't think it was a good idea, but it's happened, so let's get on with it, and think who we, should bring in next, personally I think we should bring in either Brian Little or David Hodgson (again) or how about both, in that order, as manager and assistant manager, as well as get in Kevan Smith and Olivier Bernard, in that order as head coach, and assistant head coach. This is because Little will have the 'know-how', about winning the GM Vauxhall Conference (Blue Square Premier League, as it's now called), and Division Four (Coca-Cola League Two, as it's now called) as he has won both of these leagues once before, but if that fails we'll have Hodgson 'know-how' about keeping us safe from avoiding relegation which he has done once already. Smith is a friend of Little and I think would be a brilliant coach as he done it before at previous club and Bernard said he wanted to do the club a favour as he said he owes us one and he said he would like to be a coach at this club before. Now about our chairman Raj Singh I believe he should build a nightclub on one of the corner's of the stadium and call it 'Singh's Sensitivity', as well as that, let former chairman George Houghton build the following on the land he owns:
• Six full-size football pitches – three of which will be all-weather pitches using the latest 'astro-turf'.
• A classroom facility adjacent to the pitches for the delivery of sport based courses allowing DFC to increase the size of its Centre of Excellence to take up to 50 scholars.
• A massive indoor sports facility with the provision of twelve six-a-side football pitches (this will be the largest such indoor facility in the area and will be suitable for many different sports and community uses).
• A one hundred bed hotel which will supplement the banqueting and conference facilities at the Northern Echo Darlington Arena. In addition, this will be used as a training centre in conjunction with Darlington College to deliver hotel and catering qualifications.
• Education Day Care Centre providing classroom access on the first-floor, coupled with a mixed area of leisure recreation on the ground floor including a bowling alley, gym and swimming pool.
• A restaurant and 'Family Fun Pub' called ‘Houghton’s Hospitality’ and a state-of-the-art crèche.
• Office accommodation block facilitating expansion for DFC commercially.
So what do people think about those ideas?

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manchester quakers says...
5:11pm Mon 22 Mar 10

Right decision to get rid of SS, our players are of varying quality and this season was always going to be a struggle but a half-decent manager would surely have got a fair few more points with this squad.

Will be now interesting to see how the current set of players react to a new manager. I remain optimistic for the future. We've got some decent youngsters coming through and maybe we can hang on to Purcell. They'll have to cut prices next season, to coax people back but York only charge a couple of quid less than us and we're going to need money to compete in the BS.

Would be good to see Smudger back. Maybe bring back Nattress in defence and Sinclair up front ;-)

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JOrd8531 says...
9:00pm Mon 22 Mar 10

I have now changed my mind, and believe Singh, should make a list of poeple, who he thinks could be possible candidates, to take over as manager, of Darlington, and if I were Singh, and this would be my long list of people, who I would employ, first in that order:
1. Mike Newell
2. Stuart McCall
3. Mark Cooper
4. Martin Allen
5. Stuart Gray
6. Russell Slade
7. Eddie May
8. Mick Wadsworth
9. Gudjon Thordarson
10. John Trewick
11. Peter Jackson
12. Kevan Smith
13. Gary Pallister
14. Craig Hignett
Then if I were Singh, I'd make a short list of, 7 from those possible 14 people, for possible people, who are interested candidates, to take over as manager, of Darlington, and would interview all of these people, once, and this would be my short list of people, who I would employ first in that order:
1. Mike Newell
2. Stuart McCall
3. Mark Cooper
4. Martin Allen
5. Stuart Gray
6. Russell Slade
7. Eddie May
Then if I were Singh, I'd make an even shorter list of 4 from those possible 7 people, for possible people who are interested candidates to take over as manager, of Darlington, and would interview all of these twice, and this would be my list of people, who I would employ first in that order:
1. Mike Newell
2. Stuart McCall
3. Mark Cooper
4. Martin Allen
Then if I were Singh, I'd assess all of these people, as certaintees for the role of manager, and then I would call the ones in, to tell them they hadn't made it first, (Allen, Cooper and McCall), and then call the last one in (Newell) to tell him that he's, the new manager of Darlington, and that he can come in the next day (Tuesday), to the dressing room, and meet his new players, then watch them in action, for the game against Alderhsot Town, that night, and can start his new job, and training, with his new team, straight away, the next day, (Wednesday), in the morning.

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george~stark says...
5:43pm Tue 23 Mar 10

Mark Cooper is the man but I doubt he would really be interested

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