The tale of two managers

I wanted to take to these pages and congratulate Phil Parkinson and his Bradford City team. If anyone deserves to be a focal point for a fairy story then it is the Yorkshiremen.

As for Parky, he is as hard working as a manager as he was as a player. In fact his image of a limited but courageous and loyal midfielder has followed him into management and the plaudits for what his team have achieved are fully deserved.

Parky steered the good-ship Charlton through some torrid times, and there is no question that he worked his balls off at a time when we were probably more of a basket case that any of us wanted to believe. He played to our strengths, which weren’t always pretty and hard work was never going to be enough especially in games when he was shown up tactically. Mind you, he wasn’t the other night!

Parky is a good man, who showed humility and honesty when with us and someone I felt who was always willing to own up to his mistakes and learn from them, the polar opposite to his predecessor at The Valley. Congratulations Parky.

Simon Grayson was sacked as manager of Huddersfield Town today after 12 games without a league win, although they did beat us in the FA Cup. The Terriers have tumbled down the league after a great start to life in The Championship despite selling their best player.

It seems a bit harsh to me, but relegation to League One as we know is a thought best not contemplated and Town are 7 points off the bottom 3. The obvious question is whether chairman Dean Hoyle can convince Nigel Adkins to move back up north, although one would have thought Adkins’ stock is higher than Huddersfield.

In other surprising news today, Millwall lost Darius Henderson to Forest, just weeks after they lost Chris Wood to Leicester. He was a big earner at The Den but moved on a free transfer. Millwall are certainly feeling the pinch even though Kenny Jackett has pushed the Lions right into the play-off race.