Derry's Future At Notts

With the downward spiral of the magpies, there have been a lot of comments pointing out Shaun Derry's future as the manager of Notts County. To a degree, I see where other fans are coming from as I have pointed out certain behaviours and aspects which niggle me surrounding Shaun Derry. However, to a level we must see that he is still learning his trade at this level.

It wasn't that long ago fans were concerned about him leaving for bigger and better things.

Plus on the basis of last season, it wasn't that bad compared to that we have seen. We almost managed to secure a play-off space, which I honestly feel had the right players have been available when we lost the likes of Michael Petrasso, Stephen McLaughlin and of course Louis Laing. I feel we would still be up at the other end of the table, perhaps fighting for the 5^th to 6^th place.

To be fair, I didn't think we would struggle like we have done and after spending many hours speaking to fans at games everyone seemed to agree at the time.

Yet to sack Shaun Derry at this stage of the season, it doesn't make sense at least for me. 12 games to go? It's not the right time to do it and I would certainly hope the clubs board stand by the man who saved us last season when all seemed lost.

Any new manager would be required to spend time learning his squad, I would at least expect this to take 4-6 games of experimenting, whereby we may get some points but it is just far too risky for me. Plus, what do we go with an experienced manager or another who is new to the role?

I doubt we have the budget to attract a manager who has the experience to which would please the majority of fans, whilst I would like to acknowledge replacing Shaun Derry for Greg Abbott just doesn't make sense at all.

Personally, I think sacking Shaun Derry would relegate us alone at this stage and at least with him we stand a chance of fighting it but we must stand together.

It's been many years since I have seen so many behind the same manager, in fact, I know of fans who didn't like Martin Allen but he would be perhaps the last manager to have the largest percent of the Notts County fan base right behind him.

What we need is for Shaun Derry to settle the squad down in my opinion, this starts with dropping the lone striker and finding a system whereby we don't compensate our attacking capabilities which doesn't leave our defence wide open. Call me traditional, but 442 is the perfect formation, especially since we have two very talented wingers and one who can make the grade provided he's given the chance in William Hayhurst.

I am not forgetting Garry Thompson, for me he can impact from the wing or as a striker but its upfront where I would prefer to see him.

Yet for the first time in a while we have several decent options up front and all they need is the game time, Bálint Bajner could come good and Leroy Lita could prove to be the striker we actually require in the current situation we find ourselves, but whoever starts, they must be played and allowed to settle into a system - cutting and swapping isn't helping anyone.

No doubt it's difficult, it's not going the way we had hoped but we have a good chance of building on the foundations laid out within this season and it would be nice to see the turnover of players reduced, as it would seeing a manager make a complete season in charge, by this I mean from start to finish.

That actually seems weird to say, as you would expect that we have had a manager complete a full season, but we would have to go way back, just before Munto.

I hope we can write our own ending to the season rather than forcing one, for me we must back Derry and hope that it pays off.

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