Next Scunthorpe Manager: The runners and riders to replace Neil Cox
Football League basement club Scunthorpe United parted ways with Neil Cox on Monday morning following a difficult start to the season.
Cox collected just two wins and 11 points from 15 matches this term, which left his side bottom of League Two, a point adrift of safety.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Colchester proved to be the final straw as it left the Iron with one win to their name from their last 10 matches.
Cox, appointed in August 2020, now departs with a total of 15 wins from 69 games at the club.
Scunthorpe are no strangers to changing managers with owner Peter Swann now hunting for his eighth boss in six years.
In a statement Scunthorpe stated that Tony McMahon (coach) and Paul Musselwhite (goalkeeping coach) had been placed in caretaker charge for Saturday's FA Cup first round clash against Doncaster. Both McMahon and Musselwhite can currently be backed at 14/1 with Bet Victor for the full-time job.
In a bid to escape the clutches of the relegation zone could Scunthorpe now opt for a manager with experience?
Keith Hill has emerged as the 5/1 favourite in the betting. The 52-year-old, who has recently linked with Carlisle, has been out-of-work since leaving Tranmere in May. Hill led the club into the play-offs but a breakdown in relations with the club's fans meant he was sacked before they got underway.
On a small budget Hill previously led Rochdale into League One on two occasions, but had less successful spells at Barnsley and Bolton.
He’s only just left his post at Charlton but could we see a swift return to management for Nigel Adkins?
Adkins endured a torrid start to the season at Charlton which saw him sacked last month, but he has fonder memories of his tenure at Scunthorpe, whom he twice propelled into the Championship over the course of four years, before taking Southampton from League One to the Premier League.
Scunthorpe’s former physiotherapist can currently be backed at 6/1 to return to Glanford Park in what would surely be an extremely popular appointment, but could he be tempted?
“It was my club, if you like. I had a key to every room in the building, used to open the gates in the morning and lock them again at night,” Adkins previously told The Coaches' Voice.
“Our goal had been to get back up to the Championship, and we had done it. The players knew exactly what they were doing; we were structured, we were organised, we had great attention to detail, but most of all we were a team. Together Everybody Achieves More."
Ex-Carlisle manager Chris Beech can also be backed at 6/1, former Newport boss Michael Flynn is admittedly quite an unlikely appointment at 12/1, while John McGreal, Graham Coughlan and Ian Holloway can each be found out at 20/1, with Paul Tisdale and Curtis Woodhouse both available at 25/1.
Elsewhere, the club's former three-time promotion winning defender Andy Crosby - now assistant at Port Vale - could attract attention at 14/1.
It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days but caretaker boss McMahon certainly looks at a decent price at 14/1 considering that he’s likely to be given a fair few games in charge. The 35-year-old has previously worked in the Middlesbrough and Doncaster academies, before joining Scunthorpe’s coaching staff in June.
However, you feel that struggling Scunthorpe need an experienced head with knowledge of the league to come in given the club's early season struggles.
