JONES FACING TRIAL BY TV
Stoke boss fights to hang on to job
NATHAN JONES will fight to save his managerial skin live on TV tonight.
Jones’ future as Stoke manager is coming under increasing scrutiny and he pulled out of his normal weekly press conference yesterday as speculation about his future intensifies.
The official reason was that he was having lunch with Potters owner Peter Coates but it might just prove to be the last supper if he cannot conjure up his first win of the season.
Former Luton boss Jones has had a miserable run in charge at Stoke since taking over in January and his side now sit second from bottom of the Championship with no wins from eight games. Lose at home to Forest and it could be curtains, with former Newcastle and Brighton boss Chris Hughton heavily linked with the job.
Jones handed his media duties to assistant Paul Hart, who said: “Each individual deals with things in different ways but I’m sure that he’s feeling it. We haven’t won enough matches this season and we want to win more. But he appears to me to be dealing with things pretty well.”
Hart, a former player and manager at Forest, added: “No matter what happens within this club I can honestly say the supporters have been superb. “We haven’t given them what we want. They have to see us win and we have to get it. It’s dead simple – we need to win.” Hart said he felt there was genuine cause to believe there is a brighter outlook than when Jones came to the Potters eight months ago.
He said: “The club was in need of a boost and I truly believe that we didn’t expect to be in quite the position we are in.
“He has given people hope and I don’t think that’s a forlorn hope. I don’t live in a fantasy land and the people around me, I make sure they don’t either.We know a win is necessary. Nottingham Forest seem to have stabilised as a club for the first time in a long while. Forest are always a tough team to play against and I don’t anticipate anything different for this game.”