COUNTY HIT SPEED BUMP

Chettle going nowhere fast

NOTTS COUNTY have won fewer points in their last six games than owner Alan Hardy has got for speeding this month.

They sit next to bottom of League Two and the world’s oldest professional team will be out of the league altogether unless chairman Hardy gets his third managerial appointment right.

Managerless County were a mess, well beaten by a team that had only previously won twice all season.

Sacked

The home side were so poor they made Luke Varney look like Jamie Vardy as he scored twice and partner Tyrone Barnett grabbed a third at the death.

The win took Cheltenham out of the bottom two on goal difference, dumping County in their place.

A year earlier, to the day, they beat Cheltenham at Meadow Lane and were top of League Two.

Kevin Nolan, who took them to the play-offs, was sacked by Hardy in September and his successor, Harry Kewell, went last Tuesday.

Both had gone six games without a win and local businessman Hardy, 54, doesn’t mess about. Their only points since the first week of October are from draws with Port Vale and Oldham.

Hardy recently got six points, a three-month ban and £3,220 fine for driving at 77mph on a 40mph road.

Michael Appleton has turned down the job, Paul Hurst is the favourite and Under-23 boss Steve Chettle is the caretaker with a mess to clean up.

“We need to stand up and be counted as men,” says Chettle.

“It needs sorting out quickly because we are in a bit of a predicament.

“But this is a tough profession. We have to be men about it.

“There were 6,000 people here shouting and screaming because it wasn’t good enough and we have to accept that.”

If Hurst, recently sacked by Ipswich, hasn’t been put off by what he has seen, he is likely to be Notts County’s new manager this week.

Hardy said he cried when he sacked his friend Nolan.

He must now make sure his next tears are not for his club’s demise in the Football League.