Nick Daws: Scunthorpe United sack manager after four league games of season

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Nick Dawes
Nick Daws was given the caretaker job in March and steered Scunthorpe to the League One play-offs

Scunthorpe United chairman Peter Swann says he "made a mistake" in giving sacked manager Nick Daws the permanent job after his caretaker spell.

Daws, 48, took on the job in May after helping the Iron to the play-offs during his stint as interim boss.

However, despite beating Coventry on the opening weekend, Scunthorpe are now 18th in League One following heavy defeats by Sunderland and Fleetwood.

"This was not a great decision by me," Swann told BBC Look North.

"For us we're just not seeing the returns we would hope to at this particular stage.

"It's not just down to the poor results, it's something we feel is necessary to get us back on track.

"I think a lot about Nick, he's a great coach but sometimes you make a mistake."

Assistant boss Andy Dawson will take charge of Saturday's League One game against Barnsley.

Swann has intimated that the next appointment at Glanford Park will be a more established figure.

Daws had joined Scunthorpe as first-team coach from Queens Park Rangers in 2014, working under then-boss Mark Robins and then serving as assistant to Graham Alexander before Alexander's exit in March.

"There's a huge difference between a coach and a manager," Swann added.

"It's a lot harder now to have a brand new manager in League One, and a successful manager. It's very difficult.

"I have to make a decision based on what I see everyday and what I know Nick to have done over the past four years and I felt I needed someone more experienced at this stage now.

"We need someone to take us through and integrate our players we've got now and build ourselves into a team."

Analysis

Mike White, BBC Radio Humberside's Scunthorpe United reporter

The reaction of many looking on from the outside will likely be 'but Nick Daws only had five games in permanent charge?', which would be a reasonable thing to ask.

However, a 5-0 home defeat by Fleetwood - a side you are expected to compete with - was always going to test the resolve of chairman Peter Swann and seemingly it was enough for him to act.

There is no getting away from the fact that in addition to Wednesday, the Iron were just as poor against an impressive Sunderland last weekend and, to a lesser extent, in the cup defeat by Doncaster.

Although having lost a number of key players in the summer, questions have and will continue to be put forward if Daws was given ample resources to replace those departing figures.

The opening few games suggest not, but is three weeks of a new season really enough to judge a manager that was backed to be "the man'" only three months earlier?

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72 comments

  • Wouldn't wish that on any club Rennie, just laughable how trigger happy clubs are gettin rid of managers

  • Sack the board - letting the better players leave and not replacing is the problem.

  • They should and get Rodgers from Celtic, I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to move back to England. He also has experience of this level of football after 3 years in the SPL

  • I suggest they appoint Steve Maclaren as he will be available very soon

  • Bit of a joke really, if he wasn't the right man then why let him take over in May ?

    Just about sums up football management.

  • It's decisions like these that must make it easier for all managers when they are let go. Four defeats in fourteen games? I imagine there are not many managers who wouldn't take that.

  • More than likely he'll be replaced by someone who's been sacked countless times already, the manager merry-go-round is on the go

  • LMA need to get the finger out and establish some sort of contractual protection for managers. This is getting beyond a joke.

  • Madness. Absolute madness. Unless there's more than to this than meets the eye, like something has gone on behind the scenes that makes his job untenable, it's scandalous he's not been given a chance after 5 games. What do chairmen expect nowadays? Give them at least 3-6 months to get going and put their stamp on a team. The game's going crackers. Even at Scunthorpes level.

  • There will soon be an end of season award for the manager who has lasted a full season!
    Swanny, at this stage last season Plymouth were rock bottom and had just been thrashed 4 0 by Scunthorpe. Their board stuck with the manager and they finished just short of a play off place! Season before Sheffield United had a pointless four game start and finished up promoted as champions! Food for thought?

  • Genuinely feel sorry for Nick Daws, decent, honest manager who on balance would have turned this around. Thanks for what you've done for The Iron, good wishes for whatever you roll onto after this.

  • really 4 games in disgracefull

  • I was at the game on Wednesday night and although it certainly wasn't a pleasant experience I do not know how it could have been much better given the amount of talent that left the club during the summer. Scunthorpe needs to hold on to the decent players that we do attract and build rather than repeat this ridiculous cycle of selling and then sacking the manager as soon as the results falter.

  • By giving Nick Daws the job and then firing him after five games, Peter Swann has made himself look incompetent. Perhaps his next appointment should be someone who actually understands football as a Football Director - and let them appoint the manager.

  • Absolutely stupid. Gets them to the front door of the Champoinship, a couple of defeats and the board goes into panic. How can a manager, any manager, do his best if this is the knee jerk reaction? Back in the day, a run like this would have been called a ‘purple patch’ and no one would have batted an eyelid. Maybe it’s the Chair and Board who ought to design?? The fans deserve better than this.

  • Scunthorpe fans will no doubts have a better insight then neutrals like me but this just seems madness. Endlessly sacking managers rarely succeeds.

  • Only the Club's fan's know the truth, but looking at some comments, getting rid of Alexander and the Club's best player's was not the choice of the manager? So to blame someone who had the rug pulled from under him is a joke, and then to publicly declare it was the Chairman who did it!! Not exactly a Hercule Poirot "who dunit" script !!! But who do you get off the "merry-go-round" ???????

  • Won four points more than QPR, yet Shhhhhhteve McFakedutch is still in a job. Hmmm.

    Swann should sack himself. By his admission, it was his own fault, after all.

  • I have been supporting United home and away for many years, and have never seen such abject surrender as I did in the last two matches. We lost a lot of very good and reliable players in the last few months and they have not been replaced. The chairman opted for the cheapest and least experienced manager to replace Graham Alexander and deserves criticism for his role in the mess we're in now.

  • @32 disillusioned.
    You took the words right out of my mouth. We had 1 point from our first 4 games that season and went up as champions with 100 points and are now holding our own in the championship. I'll admit I dont know much about the "other" SUFC but 4 games then gone is a joke

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