| Date: 27-11-19John Pemberton gone following poor results |
As long expected the Harriers manager John Pemberton finally ‘resigned’ from his post today after a run of poor results, including both the FA Cup and the FA Trophy, had seen the club struggling to get themselves above the mid table position and more recently above the relegation zone parapet.
His assistant manager, Russ Penn, will take over for the next few weeks, including the game this coming Saturday against Southport, until another big name manager is appointed to lead the way. No doubt he will face the same problems that JP had in trying to recruit players against a background of boardroom silence and not actually knowing who was in charge.
Enough was enough and his time had come
John came to us at the end of May with glowing recommendations from the then chairman Colin Gordon. His time coaching successful youth teams at Sheffield Utd, Nottingham Forest and Chesterfield met the criteria of what Gordon wanted in fulfilling his vision but it seems that wasn’t what Pemberton wanted. He had come to Aggborough believing that he would be given full backing to mould the 1st team into promotion material and not to slot in as many Academy kids as he was told.
With the dawning of a new ownership structure it was hoped that side of it might have improved but sadly it didn’t. First we had the Ashley Hemmings farce in that first he was going to sign but then a last minute financial block by the new owners meant that wasn’t going to happen. Then once that was sorted he was promised new players and Hemmings finally came in but then it all went quiet again. Brandon Diau arrived a few weeks back but that appears to be a barrel scraping exercise.
The lack of games in recent weeks hadn’t helped matters either and then came the loss of goalkeeper Cameron Gregory after he was recalled to Shrewsbury and again John was promised a replacement would soon arrive and, to date, there has been no sign of one even though there were talks of one from Redditch Utd and then one from West Bromwich Albion but still he waited.
The question now is will Liverpool also recall Rhys Williams from his loan with us seeing as it was Pembertons hard work and contacts that bought him here in the first place. Now that he’s gome Liverpool may rethink the situation.
Saturdays abysmal defeat away at Curzon Ashton in the Trophy and the subsequent criticism of Richard Peniket seems to have been the final straw and yesterday he was relieved of his duties much to the relief of both himself and to the dressing room.
Good luck to John in whatever he does next. Chesterfield might be looking for a new manager following last nights 5-1 home defeat and at least he was respected there.
Photo © KHFC