Swindon boss Richie Wellens criticises Mansfield Town's sacking of David Flitcroft

Swindon Town boss Richie Wellens believes Mansfield Town’s difficult season has been down to the sacking of David Flitcroft last summer.
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Flitcroft was dismissed having failed to guide Stags to promotion, despite being in the top three for much of the campaign and losing out in the play-of semi-finals.

And Wellens, who brings his table-topping side to the One Call Stadium this weekend, feels that sacking Flitcroft was the wrong decision, highlighted by John Dempster and Graham Coughlan’s subsequent struggles to guide Stags up the League Two table.

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He said: “They’ve missed out on promotion by the barest of margins twice and then they make a decision to change their manager.

Swindon boss Richie Wellens.Swindon boss Richie Wellens.
Swindon boss Richie Wellens.

“I think it’s another example of a club that has come so close to getting to where they want to be and then make a rash decision to get rid of their manager who had done exceptionally well there.

“I think his [Flitcroft’s] win percentage was outstanding, surely he must have seen little tweaks he could have made to improve the squad and make that extra step to get them promoted.

“But they went down the avenue of changing their manager. When you sign a player, there is no guarantee, and when you sign a manager, there is no guarantee. I think they would feel they should definitely be higher than they are this season because they’ve got a lot of talent in the squad.

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“Defensively, they’ve got very strong players who are used to this level, and in Danny Rose and Nicky Maynard, they’ve got two strikers at this level who can score goals.”

Wellens has backed Coughlan to turn things around at Mansfield once he is able to make the squad his own.

He added: “Graham was very successful at Bristol Rovers, but if I’m him – and this is just me looking in from the outside – I’d want the season to end as quickly as possible.

“He’ll get a view on each of his players, but he’ll want the summer to come to get a few of his own players in and do a bit of recruitment.

“I’ve been where Graham is now, and it can be tough.

“But we’ve just got to make sure we go there and remain in the same frame of mind as how we’ve been in recent weeks.”