New boss has Mark of Wimbledon spirit
YOU may recall that when AFC Wimbledon were in the hunt for a new manager, Chelsea Women’s Emma Hayes had to rule herself out after reports linking her with becoming the EFL’s first female boss.
It could be argued Mark Robinson, who eventually got the job, was equally as leftfield. The 55-year-old had no professional playing career to speak of thanks to injuries and gave up a well-paid sales job to join Wimbledon as a coach in 2004, two years after the new club was formed.
So outsiders would have been asking ‘Mark who?’ when he was appointed interim manager following Glyn Hodges’ departure at the end of January, with the Dons staring relegation in the face.
Robinson has happily given up the main responsibility for the club’s recruitment, believing his strengths lie on the training pitch.
It has begun working after a 5-1 win at Accrington was followed up by Tuesday’s 3-0 success over Ipswich – the Dons’ first back-to-back victories for 18 months.
Robinson gave a nod to the famed Crazy Gang in midweek, insisting Wimbledon should not see that win as a scalp.
‘This is no disrespect to Ipswich, who are a wonderful football club, but Wimbledon never used to look at clubs like that as scalps, it was just, “We are Wimbledon”,’ he said.
With six games left in League One, they are not out of the woods just yet but they will be a good sight closer should they beat relegation rivals Swindon
at Plough Lane tomorrow. The Robins, meanwhile, went in totally the opposite direction when Richie Wellens left for Salford in the autumn.
John Sheridan is on his 12th club as a manager, not taking into account that he has had four stints at Oldham alone, and said after the 2-1 midweek defeat at Rochdale that left them four points adrift of safety: ‘Myself and my staff keep doing the same things week in, week out and we keep conceding so many poor goals.’
With 707 games as a manager, Sheridan’s methods may be tried and tested but most Swindon fans will tell you they absolutely aren’t working.
As proved by ex-City trader Mark Warburton and ex-physio Nigel Adkins, sometimes taking a chance on someone outside the managerial merry-go-round can be a gamble that pays off.