Chief executive Simon Clegg says former manager Roy Keane’s angry exchanges with fans at Monday’s 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest showed that the pressure was starting to get to the Irishman. Keane rowed and gestured towards supporters behind the dug-out and on the way back to the tunnel after the club’s seventh loss in nine games.
Clegg said: "What that pointed out to me was that the pressure was getting to him, because Roy normally doesn’t react like that. "That was him venting his frustration at the situation, not at the fans, but at the general situation he found himself in.”
The chief executive says supporters’ views are significant but that ultimately the decision to sack Keane was down to him and owner Marcus Evans: "Obviously the fans are critically important to us and I have listened to the vocal minority and the silent majority as well. Of course it was an important factor that we take into account.
"But ultimately the decision on who is employed as our manager is down to the owner and myself, and we have to make that decision in terms of what’s in the best interest of the club.”
Clegg and Evans are spending the weekend speaking to prospective new managers with Paul Jewell's name the one continuing to appear most often in newspaper speculation.