Joe Dunne Sacked as Cambridge Manager

[Dave]

@RandoEFC

Joe Dunne has been sacked as head coach of League Two side Cambridge.

The U's have won just five of their 20 league games this season and sit in 21st place in the table, three points clear of the relegation zone.

Assistant head coach Mark Bonner will take charge of the first team on an interim basis as the club begin their search for Dunne's successor.

"It is never easy to part company with a head coach - particularly someone who has played a number of significant roles at the club over several years and for whom everyone at Cambridge has great affection and respect," Cambridge director of football Graham Daniels said.

"Results have however dictated the need for change. We believe we have the talent in this squad to be further up the table. While the team has shown its ability in patches during the season we have struggled to find consistency.

"As a result the board came to the conclusion that the team would benefit from a change of leadership."

[RandoEFC+]

Not surprising, start of the season has generally been a shower of shite. There was a pick up in results then the farce of getting turfed out of the FA Cup in the first round by Guiseley.

I can't pretend to have more than a passing knowledge of Cambridge and the playing squad these days. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Would be a disaster to get relegated out of the football league though. I don't think that's an immediate danger but got to make sure it doesn't happen.

[Smiley Culture]

14 wins and 8 draws out of 40 isn’t too bad, in all honesty. Works out at 1.25 points a game, which over the course of a season works out at 57.5 points. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and award him an extra half a point to round it up and over the past ten League Two seasons, they’d finish;

15th, 15th, 16th, 15th, 14th, 16th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 14th. 

I don’t think a position of 15th would be bad for Cambridge but I reckon, though I don’t know, the style of football probably isn’t that good and that’s why he’s had pressure on him. 

[RandoEFC+]

Thing is it's hard to get relegated from League Two. In that sense there isnt that much to lose. Because you only have to get top 7 for the playoffs too you might as well twist instead of stick because the season looks dead at this stage, out of the cup and no threat of a good run in the league.

Get lucky with the new manager bounce and you can easily go on a decent run. Because the league is so close and the top 30% of teams get at least a playoff place, it doesn't even take a lengthy run to get into contention. 

Several times Cambridge have sat bottom half all season then put a run together of 3 wins and 2 draws in five games and found themselves a win outside the playoff places. Worth a gamble on getting something similar happen later this season. Worst case scenario results stay poor and we finish about 16th.